"Dave Matthews at Our Wedding" Is the New "Hiking the Appalachian Trail"

Emily, I agree that modern women don't really want a Don Draper [1], but at least he's a way better fantasy than fellow affair-havers Mark Sanford and now John Edwards. First, Sanford had that lame Appalachian Trail excuse and the even more embarrassing press conference. In a New York Times article over the weekend [2], it was revealed that Edwards promised mistress Rielle Hunter that he would "marry her in a rooftop ceremony in New York with an appearance by the Dave Matthews Band." What is wrong with our chronically unstylish philandering politicians?

Say what you will about Don, but at least he was discreet, and embarrassing Betty is the last thing he'd ever want to do. Both Sanford and Edwards have maximally humiliated their families with their dalliances. It now appears as if Edwards is the father of Hunter's child, as people have been speculating all along. If Edwards had been honest when his affair with Hunter had first emerged, if he had said, yes, this is my child, it would have been awful for Elizabeth and his children, but at least it would have been only briefly in the public mind. But he didn't do that. Instead, this farce has been drawn out for months on end. If Edwards didn't come clean in order to save his political career [3], it was a stupid move. Americans hate being lied to, especially repeatedly and over moral issues. Has any American political career survived an out-of-wedlock child?