ABC: Cheating on a Sick Spouse - "John McCain. Then Newt Gingrich. And now John Edwards."

[Pirate Smile]

Cheating on a Sick Spouse
Wronged Spouses Get Double Punch: Illness and Betrayal

By SUSAN DONALDSON JAMES
Aug. 12, 2008
78 comments

Edwards' betrayal of his wife at her most vulnerable moment -- as a cancer patient -- is more common than conventional wisdom suggests, according to infidelity experts.

A mistress of former House Speaker Gingrich told Vanity Fair they had their tryst as his first wife recovered from uterine cancer surgery in the 1980s.

While McCain was married to his first wife, who was disabled from a car accident, he was "aggressively courting a 25-year-old woman who was as beautiful as she was rich," according to a New York Times colunmist's account of the 1970s incident that predated McCain's election to the Senate.

Both McCain and Gingrich have admitted to the affairs.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=5559242&page=1

[trudyco]

1. ABC? Amazing - but of course it is in the health section -nt

[Pirate Smile]

4. True but this is what Tapper has on his blog today (is there a full moon?):

Today's Campaign Contest: Count the Young White Women in McCain's Anti-Obama Video
August 12, 2008 9:30 AM

How many young white women professing adoration for Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, can you count in this anti-Obama web video that the campaign of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz, was sending out yesterday?

One...two...three...four...sure are a lot of young white women in this thing....

Why do you think they put so many young white women professing their love for Obama in what is clearly an anti-Obama video? What would possibly be negative about young white women liking Sen. Obama?

When asked, the McCain campaign says they took the video from local news packages, but of course that doesn't explain anything.

- jpt

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/

Was he shamed into it by this post from Josh Marshall/TPM:

McCain's Memos

In a sense the revelations of Mark Penn's 'xenophobia' memos is old news, a post-mortem on a campaign that was all-consuming three months ago and now part of history. But seeing the memos beyond the message is instructive, highly instructive for another reason.

During the campaign there was a lot of clucking about whether the campaign's message just accidentally stumbled on to charged words and associations. And now we can see what was obvious at the time -- that the people in charge of the message weren't sloppy and unlucky but rather what you would expect, professionals following a detailed plan.

Now how about Sen. McCain? You see his ads lining Obama up with Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, a new ad with the tagline "hot chicks dig Obama" (yes, those are the actual words in McCain's ad) and countless montages of Obama as pop music sensation. How do you think McCain's memos read?

Only the deeply naive or the deliberately oblivious -- which regrettably includes the greater number of the people covering the campaign -- don't know the answer to that question.

--Josh Marshall

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/208028.php

[LSparkle]

8. I almost wonder if ABC uses their online operation to counteract ...

the crap they spew on their airwaves. Their reporting
online is decent but lately their broadcasts are leaning
WAY right ...

[Pirate Smile]

12. Oh, no, frequently the online crap spewed is just as RW as the stuff aired.

I think this just happens to be a coincidence that two decent stories are online today.

[David Zephyr]

2. There's the "capsule" we needed: "Cheating on a sick spouse". That's John McCain.

"Cheating on a sick spouse."

[Supersedeas]

3. wow! ABC let that slip through -- how long til the marketers pull it?

[quantass]

5. ABC will never broadcast this over the airwaves..never.

[lumberjack_jeff]

6. Which one is not like the others.

Edwards didn't abandon his wife.

[cascadiance]

7. Bob Barr (another current presidential candidate) also cheated on an ailing wife...

A bunch others here too, including Bob and Libby Dole having lived a life of sin for four years before Bob got the divorce...

http://www.arizonasportsfans.com/vb/f22/republican-family-values-wiki-style-93270.html

[Max_powers94]

9. Is bob barr half black.???? He looks like a very high yellow black man

Keep in mind i am black as well

[Diamonique]

10. I've seen lots of rumors, but nothing definite. n/t

[SoCalDem]

14. here ya go

:rofl:

[ecstatic]

16. He is but he is passing. And let's keep it top secret so

that he can continue to siphon votes from mcdrain :rofl:

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

11. Broken link. Coincidence??

[Bucky]

13. I think it's honorable that a cheating spouse takes the time to hide his infidelities

In its own way, it's really kinda romantic :hide:

[progressoid]

15. Oops, somebody at ABC didn't get the memo about how to properly handle this story.

[ecstatic]

17. I really hope this story gets wings nt

[seasat]

18. Hmmm, I wonder if this narrative is how we bring McCain's past out.

Why politicians cheat on their sick spouses, a comparison of politician's infidelity. Though, it should be noted that Edwards confessed to his wife and stayed with her while McCain and Gingrich divorced theirs for younger women. Democrats keep their families together. Repubs treat their spouses like they treat lobbyists. Whoever has the most cash or looks wins the Repub.