The Edwards Affair

It appears that Senator John Edwards had an affair a couple years ago. I see three lessons from this.

One is that powerful men attract good looking women and, when temptation presents itself, are generally unable to resist. Our political system would be much better if we simply acknowledged this fact and left it between husband and wife to sort out in whatever manner they prefer. The Edwardses seems to have done so, and it's not clear why it's anyone else's business.

Two is that men will always lie (or at a minimum, prevaricate) when first confronted, hoping that the evidence will turn out to be insufficient. This means that when a man denies having had an affair, it is not newsworthy and should not be reported. If he confesses, that's unusual enough to merit attention, but denial definitely falls in the "dog bites man" category.

Third is that those who most strongly denounce the moral turpitude of philanderers are fully as likely as the rest of the crowd to be doing so already, or to do so in the future. John Edwards is just one more example. There should be a similar rule to that above. When a politician decries the immorality of another, it is meaningless and should be ignored by the press.

Of course, none of this is going to happen. Men will be caught in sex "scandals," which in mature societies would simply be ignored, and the press will hound them. They will deny everything. Eventually they will be unable to wriggle free and they will issue some mea culpa. Other prominent men will pontificate, although they are probably banging their secretaries. It's boring, really.