The Politician: An Insider's Account of John Edwards's Pursuit of the Presidency and the Scandal That Brought Him Down

Most Dickens fans defend his stereotypical characters with the argument that the characters are not meant to be taken at face value. But the author John Irving, a Dickens expert, says that people really are like Dickens characters, and we just don't want to admit it. This nonfiction book proves Irving's point. (I am also reminded of the strange pathologies of the characters in the wonderful novels of Barbara Vine. Someone's going to get hurt...) The author himself is a character in this weird, wonderful, novel-like story. WTF?? There really are people like that out there? I guess so! This one wrote a book! Andrew Young carried the Edwards family's loads for many years. Everything that ever went wrong was Young's fault and he just stood it. I just hope the money was excellent. He constantly patched Edwards through to Hunter or took charge of the "Batphone," as they called Edwards's secret cell. He kept relocating his own family, disrupting his kids' education, to hide Rielle. He reveals why Edwards needed those $400 haircuts. Rielle Hunter had to consult her $200-a-call spritual adviser about a Reuben sandwich. That's one sandwich. She spilled coffee on a porous floor and just made more coffee and left the mess there. She had to inspect hotel room after hotel room after hotel room to get one with the right atmosphere. She named her baby (Frances) Quinn because "Quinn" suggests "five" and the baby was Edwards' fifth child. She was furious every time the candidate said something nice about his wife. There are these and many other anecdotes besides all the stuff you already know. A very old, very kind lady GAVE Edwards $6 million and never asked anything in return but that he attend her daughter's funeral. He didn't. (And this was after his campaign had already tanked.) Edwards continued to juggle wife and mistress right through Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina. He maintained that his presidential quest was more important than such petty things. As Jay Gatsby might say, "In any case, it was just personal." Edwards actually thought he was going to get away with this behavior. Elizabeth Edwards pointedly told Young that he was not a member of the family. (Quite true. He was more like the dog.) Elizabeth hacked into her nanny's email account and pretended to be the nanny asking if Rielle had had "Andrew's" baby yet, trying to flush out evidence of her delusion that John was not the father. She called her hsuband obsessively and demanded that Young reveal every detail of every woman Edwards spoke to. Whoever actually ghostwrote the book has a sly talent for understatement. The reader's jaw drops. The book is worth every cent. If this were fiction, it would end in a murder. The real ending is still developing.

I was thinking this book could easily be written off as an extention of tabloid trash. It is well-written, obviously well-documented, and while I am writing this it is not the end of the story based on current developments regarding that sex tape and the 1 mil plus that was dedicated to this cover-up. John Edwards failed to man-up and admit he lied in increments to his wife, his jack-of-all-trades Andrew Young, and the american people when he confessed paternity re: Frances Quinn Hunter through a spokesman. Naturally he was in Haiti saving the people with his $400 haircut and his toothy grin. I bought this book because I figured his contrite prepared announcement was timed to deflect the publication of this tell all. What did he fear? Apparently there was a lot he hoped people would ignore such as this book which is fairly straightforward. The Politician is a compeling and factual account of John Edwards' grab for power and his subsequent downfall. It reads like a political thriller, but is somewhat creepy and frightening re: the depths of ambition, greed, lust, narcisism, and privilege that extends into the world of modern day american politics. I kept thinking how sincere Edwards came across while he was lying into a tv camera. Geez, he could have been president. Wasn't Bill Clinton enough? All these folks are hypocrites. No wonder most people don't trust politicians. Andrew Young portrays himself as an Edwards worshipper who thinks the man is going to save the world when he becomes president. Andrew might aptly be described as a gofer who hitches himself to the Edwards bandwagon in hopes of sunning himself in Edwards' reflected glory while incrementally increasing his personal income. It appears as if Edwards accurately sizes up Young as the perfect fall-guy as his affair with the implausible Rielle Hunter picks up steam without much discretion. The rest might be tacked up as tabloid history except Young started documenting the Edwards' activities and retaining voice mails. When Edwards unceremoniously ditches Young, he decides to set the record straight with this book. The Politician manages to make sense of Edwards' half truths in increments and Mrs. Edwards frenzied communications with Young and his wife. Not surprisingly, no one comes off well in this book including the author and his wife. Even Elizabeth Edwards is portrayed as erratic, suspicious, angry, and crazed. Sadly, considering all she had to put up with re: her sleezy husband, it is amazing that she's managed to survive. Ultimately the real victims in this story are the children involved. This booked managed to nail it for me regarding what actually happened and when. I recommend this book to any political junkie or anyone who wants to know the facts surrounding this mess. The Politician proves that truth is stranger than fiction.

If one reads this book looking for salacious gossip on the John Edwards/Rielle Hunter affair than I actually recommend reading the articles from "The National Enquirer." As they have done a more in-depth job of the details. However, if one is seeking insight into the life of a political campaign staffer then I do recommend this book, highly. As a former staffer on local and state-wide campaigns I recognize many of the elements present in this book. The devotion to the candidate, to the point where higher principles such as right and wrong get blurred. The all consuming, twenty-four hour seven days a week, schedule dependent upon the candidate's whims. The intense competition and backbiting between the staffers. The ability of the candidates to just drop cold a friend they were previously close to. The ability of the candidate to switch personalities on and off in the blink of an eye. All these elements are present in this narrative and quite typical. What is revealing in this book is the author's flagrant willingness to participate in facilitating John Edwards' communication with Rielle Hunter. Sure he is concerned about providing for his family, but he seems unaware that in so doing he is enabling another family to be destroyed. The author is a "yes" man to the point where it is overdone. He ties his future so tightly with that of John Edwards that at times he sees no way out of the mess. When in reality, he could have just had his wife take up nursing again until the author found a less humiliating position. However, as one reads the author's narrative one gets pulled into his way of thinking. It isn't until one pulls away from the text that one realizes the author in a sense got what he deserved. He acted as a celestina and then was dropped when he was of no further use. That is what happens when one makes a pact with the devil. So while at first one sides with the author and even sympathizes with him. Upon further reflection the author reveals himself to be just another one of these political wannabes who eventually gets caught in his own web of deceit that he has spun. The book in short is a worthwhile read.

If someone had asked me three years ago what the future for John Edwards would look like, I most certainly would have said he would one day be President of the United States. He had everything going for him--wonderful wife, lovely children, the story of a dad finding the strength to overcome the death of his teenage boy, wealth most of us can only dream of, a background as a tremendously successful lawyer, an already established career as a US senator, charismatic speaking ability, good looks, a clean past, a failed, yet flattering showing as John Kerry's running mate, and a reputation as a populist who was willing to fight for poor people like no one else. Enter 2008 and Edwards' admission of having an affair with Rielle Hunter. And then fast-forward to 2010 and the admission of fathering a child that all of us already knew was his. Oh how the mighty have fallen! The book is written by a true insider, and whether you agree with that idea or not, Andrew Young isn't shy about opening up. I remember first hearing about the affair back in 2008. I couldn't believe it--not because I enjoy judging people who cheat--that's none of my business--but rather for the unforgivable timing of it...and I think most Americans felt the same way. His wife had incurable cancer for God's sake! And he had been a serious candidate for the democratic nomination. His asking for my vote made the affair "my business" because in most cases (save Clinton) cheating on your wife is an automatic political disqualifier--and Edwards knew this yet did it anyway. I remember saying, "You mean to tell me that this guy was running a serious campaign with the complete knowledge that he had had this intense affair?" What if he had gotten the nomination, won the presidency, and just before the inauguration this had all come out? Democrats would have been ROYALY screwed and Republicans would have been dancing in the streets. The book makes this point well beyond what I just said. Young not only points all of this out with great depth, but he tells us much more, and it is so shocking that it's hard to believe. But considering that ever since the book's release date was made public, Edwards has admitted fathering the child and the Edwards' have split up, I think the book has solid credibility as a result. They wanted to air all of their dirty laundry before the American people could read about it. Perhaps they were thinking that this would take some of the shock value away. Well, it did no such thing. Most of what is in the book is news to me and will be news to you. It will be interesting to see what parts of it the Edwards' try to deny and discredit, because right now, I want to believe that a lot of this is false. At first I couldn't believe that a close Edwards ally was disgusting enough to spew all of this private information in a book. But it needed to be written because the Edwards' ran for the presidency while deceiving the American people. And they will pay

I bought this book and read it in one sitting and you will too. It is almost impossible to beleive that this is not fiction. It reads like one of the best of Dominick Dunne's tales of power and privelege run amok. But its all true, nobody comes out of this one smelling like a rose, nobody, but Edwards and the women who surround him are actually frightening! Whatever the authours sins of ommision or commision are, he is a nice man who is clearly trying to put his life back in the face of a surfeit of failed idealsim. Not one wasted page, its a gripping read, most fun book I have read in a long while.