So John Edwards did cheat on his wife, just like FDR and MLK before him (notable faithful politicians that come to mind: George W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, Richard Nixon).

I’m waiting for meta-media-critic Bill Wyman to explain how knowing this makes the world a better place. Or, failing that, for such a vociferous critic of the media’s vapidity and absurdity and the liberal blogosphere’s “intellectual dishonesty,” to get his nose out of John Edwards’s jock and write about politics in some other context.

Then again, I guess those posts about articles about Ben Stiller movies aren’t going to write themselves.

For the record, as an early Edwards supporter I’m sympathetic to people who are pissed that he’d run with this big a skeleton in his closet; if he’d won, he could have put the party’s chances at risk during an important election. But the people who are wigging out about how big a deal this is–people like Bill Wyman–are part of the problem. Do you care who your bus driver sleeps with? Your boss? Your favorite blogger?

Panty-sniffing as meta-discourse–it is assumed that Mr. and Mrs. Heartland care where a politcian lays pipe (even though the rich man’s John Edwards, aka Bill Clinton, is obvious evidence to the contrary) therefore I have to care on behalf of the volk–isn’t merely a largely unproven assumption, it amplifies what might just not be a problem. Seriously: are politicians who fuck around on their spouses worse at their jobs? Less popular? We should get Bill James or Nate Silver on this, but recent history certain suggests the contrary:

GWB: Faithful; unpopular; pretty bad at his job

Clinton: World-class tomcat; reasonably popular; it’s debatable

GHWB: Hard to say; one-term prez; probably better than he got credit for

Reagan: Divorced, but as far as I know faithful; quite popular; debatable, but people like him

Carter: World-class good husband; unpopular; forward-thinking but not good at his job

Nixon: Faithful; unpopular; wildly mixed record (would have been great if he wasn’t a sociopath)

Johnson: Unfaithful; unpopular, but I blame Kennedy; brilliant politician, did some great things, was undone by the war

Kennedy: Unfaithful; beloved; I think he was a bad president, but try telling other people that

etc.