What if in 2008, John Edwards wins somehow (how is not important but stick with me). What if in the election his affairs are discovered? What if the Great Recession occurs at the same time? Who could benefit? Who wouldn’t? Would Edwards win due to a bad economy? Would McCain win with integrity? Thoughts?
WI: Edwards vs McCain 2008
- Thread starter 20thCenturyBoy
- Start date
For him to get the nomination, the affair would have to be kept under wraps longer.
McCain has his own history of infidelity, but cheating on your wife while she battles cancer is a bridge too far, even for a country that elected Clinton previously and Trump later.
Hard to say if it would be enough to offset the economic meltdown. McCain wasn't exactly tied to Bush.
McCain has his own history of infidelity, but cheating on your wife while she battles cancer is a bridge too far, even for a country that elected Clinton previously and Trump later.
Hard to say if it would be enough to offset the economic meltdown. McCain wasn't exactly tied to Bush.
OTL, the Edwards affair news came in waves, but it wasn't what ended his campaign, and wasn't really considered a verifiable story by non-tabloid media while he was a viable candidate.
As the primary season progressed and Obama and Clinton went head to head, Edwards' vote share declined from losses, but he wasn't considered a finished as a politician. It wasn't until he was confronted outside a hotel going to meet Hunter and the baby in July that he was dead to rights on the affair. After Iowa, Edwards' delegate numbers went into a death spiral, and he stopped campaigning after Super Tuesday. After that, both campaigns sought his endorsement, with Clinton's offering a state by state unity tour and discussions of a role in the administration, and Obama's being less transactional, but offering a primetime slot at the convention. Edwards ended up endorsing Obama in May. So, you could plausibly get him the nomination and then have the affair spill into mainstream news.
As the primary season progressed and Obama and Clinton went head to head, Edwards' vote share declined from losses, but he wasn't considered a finished as a politician. It wasn't until he was confronted outside a hotel going to meet Hunter and the baby in July that he was dead to rights on the affair. After Iowa, Edwards' delegate numbers went into a death spiral, and he stopped campaigning after Super Tuesday. After that, both campaigns sought his endorsement, with Clinton's offering a state by state unity tour and discussions of a role in the administration, and Obama's being less transactional, but offering a primetime slot at the convention. Edwards ended up endorsing Obama in May. So, you could plausibly get him the nomination and then have the affair spill into mainstream news.
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I actually made a mistake. I thought it came out later. Well let’s assume it does come out just after the convention.
Edwards' top staffers had agreed among themselves to blow up the campaign if it appeared he had a shot at the nomination. They knew the scandal was an unrecoverable defect in his candidacy and agreed to this in the interest of saving the party from nominating a fatally flawed candidate.
Which only would take around 6 weeks, and some better luck/less talking from Hunter to friends
I know we're talking mostly about the mistake I made but can we focus on what would happen if we got past the convention? Who would win the election?
IIRC from reading the Edwards chapters in Game Change, he wasn't a Bill Clinton type serial cheater. In it one of his aides mentioned that what was so surprising to him about the Hunter thing was that Edwards had come off to him as almost asexual, and that his staff had never had to worry about him having affairs before the way the staffs of other politicians would. So it wouldn't be too hard to just not have the affair happen.
If you're referring to the account in Game Change, IIRC it was actually a group of ex-staffers who knew about the affair, not people who were still working for him. Still, a pretty stark moment if that story is in fact true.
I think the problem for Edwards was that his image was so at odds with the scandal - as the previous poster said, his staffers had always seen him as relatively squeaky-clean in his personal life, and it seemed like part of his appeal was that of someone whose family had faced a lot of adversity together (between Elizabeth's cancer and their son's death), such that his relationship with Elizabeth was seen as a selling point and a "plus" on the campaign trail.
Bill and Hillary Clinton, whatever their faults (and Bill certainly has many), have never acted like they have the most perfect relationship in the world or that their family life is a reason to vote for them. I'm not sure if McCain has ever said directly "yes, I was unfaithful to my first wife," but it seems like everyone knows about it and that he hasn't tried to present himself as perfect or as not having done some bad things when he was younger.
That is a good point. But if it were to still come out, who would win?