It seems far more likely that someone like Young told Edwards that McGovern was close to Hunter, that she listened to hm, and that he could be trusted.  

One of the details in the NE article (my mom subscribes, and I visted her yesterday, so shoot me) is that Hunter told friends (plural) that Edwards was the father -- and I believe that NE has at least two people who are making this statement.  That doesn't mean that Edwards is the father -- my "speculation" is that Hunter is something of an attention-seeking flake/phony who would tell friends about her affair with Edwards, then say he was the father of her child.

And for you die hard Pelosians: Cindy Sheehan has made it on the ballot!

The ability of some scandals to be a blip, while others get fammed from a flicker to a full blown wildfire is deeply concerning to me. (The sordid details and behavior of a few individuals here aside, there's a lot of power, influence and money at stake beyond individual reputations.)

I wouldn't discount oppositional influences here in relation to the other candidates for public office.

Not to derail the topic but keep this one in perspective, the timing of this scandal could be a pre-emptive strike to deflect attention away from other anticipated negative media.

Every flag should have been in full display signaling that she was likely to be completely indiscreet, and potentially exceedingly manipulative -- that is, the very last person a prominent politician should get involved with.

While anything might be true of course, it's hard not to speculate that she basically threw herself at him.

Didn't any bells go off in Edwards' head that she could be real trouble? Is his understanding of human nature so poor that he couldn't detect her underlying character and personality?

There's a profound naivete in Edwards' actions that is pretty astonishing.

In general, I'd expect that a man of Edwards' fame, riches, and pretty impressive good looks should not have a lot of difficulty getting all sorts of women to be attracted to him, and, given his activities, which involve meeting many, many people, should have encountered a very large pool of attractive women. I'm sure that any number of them would have been discreet.

I will hold, now and forever, that it's none of our business.  That the media makes a big deal of these things and destroys politicians, is the media's fault.  

So, let's agree to one universal truth, and that is that John Edwards may be engaging in the same kind of examination we are - why did he do it, what was he thinking, how could he have been so dumb.

I think what is bothering a lot of people is that had he decided to forego a presidential run in order to take this personal journey of examining the choices he made, we would probably be giving him credit for putting his family and his marriage first, where they belong.  Instead, I think we are all a little taken aback by his decision to go forward, to take a political risk, and to be out there telling a love story about his marriage and his family - which, now that I think about it, may have been something of a slam at the Clintons.

But, in my opinion, he has shown that above all else he is a hypocritical, selfish cad who tampered with our election knowing it could have an effect if he was found out. And I believe it did have an effect. This should send him into political oblivion for all time. I am really, really ticked off - again we will have to speculate for the next four years what might have been.  Damn!

I don't think much of the new agers but I grew up in California during the 60's and 70's, so I had more than my fill of it.

This story is getting increasingly convoluted and Hunter strikes me as a real loser. Today I don't feel as angry at Edwards but I find the whole episode rather mind-boggling. Relieved now that he didn't get the nomination.

If she demanded money from him for keeping quiet, it doesn't matter whether he's the father or not.  If she demanded child support money reasonably believing the child could be his, then it's not extortion or blackmail.

A dna test only helps Edwards, it does nothing for her.

A lot of this entirely circumstantial evidence for her extortion could equally apply to Edwards trying to pay her off to shut her up.  Most of this we only have Edwards' word for.  And we know he doesn't have a problem with lying to save his bacon.  People may suspect she's lied too, but there's no evidence.  We have Edwards admitting he lied.  On the one hand we have a politician, in whose interest it was to lie, and did lie.  On the other we have a woman who has said v. little publicly so far.  But she's the one we're all over the suspiciousness with?

Why?  Because there's a rumor she's an actress?  How does actress v politician line up on the Likely to Lie Your Butt Off scale?  Because her father was part of the JonBenet fiasco?  Because she's a New Ager?  Are they more likely to act scummily toward others?  To extort money from others?  

Beyond wacky.

Just judging from McGovern's photo, I wonder if this Robert McGovern III isn't him?  Some people who don't find fame and fandom in LA via acting (or whatever) turn to other methods to support themselves -- like becoming New Age healers.  It's all acting, right?  

Goleta, where McGovern lives, is a poor part of town.  

Apparently, he planned "to control the news cycle by making his admission late on a Friday night when the country was watching the Olympics and the long weekend yawned ahead."

=================

So, I guess everyone and their grandmas (and MoDo even) have weighed in on this news, so I just wanted to add my 2-cents.

I was thrilled that John Kerry picked J.E. to be his running mate in 2004. He was frankly the reason why I supported that ticket because I didn't like Kerry. But, I digress.

So anyway, I was furious that the allegations I learned about last year (and willingly brushed off as salacious rumors) turned out to be true. Although I did not vote for him this year, I was still rooting for him to do well. Of course, I was livid when he chose to drag his feet on his endorsement and picked Obama instead, conveniently doing it on the day after Hillary's amazing win in West Virginia.

He chose to have this affair DURING his second run for President; had the balls to say that Elizabeth was in remission when it happened; put Elizabeth's already-fragile health at risk by having unprotected sex with another woman -- described as a NYC party girl -- and placed her, his children and other family in the worst possible position when they already have so much to deal with.

I'm sorry, but right now, I care more about how Elizabeth and the children are doing, and believe this is John's just-deserts. He looked selfish and self-serving during the Primaries, and even in the process of lighting his political career on fire with his LATE confession, he wanted to be in control of its release. He totally deserves this.

She loves him.  He's trapped.  

I think this McGovern guy made a bunch of money (because I think he's the one that snitched).  He has enough money to pay his rent in Goleta for a few more years.  

People do wierd things when the lose a child, and as I said several times when this all came out, people do wierd things when their wife is diagnosed with cancer.

Men are not "allowed" by our sexist society to really grieve.  The grief comes out in other ways.

(I'm deliberately skipping and ignoring other Enquirer details that have not been verified.)

Where did you find these details?  What are they?  

Seriously, I'm not running around the internet looking for details on this so what you give me is what I have.  

They move from your description of this Bob guy to Rielle's "psychic friend" without blinking an eye.

There is nothing in that description that announces that he is a psychic. Indeed the description that is posted is fairly unobtrusive when it comes to what healers and therapists do when it comes to trying to help people work through issue.

Like many less celebrated, less attractive public figures, JRE must be approached aggressively by a lot of women in a lot of settings. What was special about this one?

From Kirkus Reviews
Pert, a self-described ``catalyst in the mindbodyspirit revolution in modern medical science,'' and once a chief of brain chemistry at the NIH, freely intermingles vibrant stories of her professional and personal life with her theories about neuropeptides. Currently a research professor at Georgetown Medical Center in Washington, Pert may be best known as one of the scientists on Bill Moyers's PBS series Healing and the Mind. In the early 1970s, she made a name for herself with her key role in discovering the brain's opiate receptors. For the next decade, however, owing to her protests over her exclusion from the prestigious Lasker Award, her reputation among scientists was more that of feminist troublemaker than pathfinder. Certainly the picture she draws here of the science establishment would seem to suggest a world of aggressive, even ruthless, alpha males fighting for the top prize. She also traces her own evolution from competitive bench scientist to explorer of personal healing modalities. The death of her father, the end of her marriage, her resignation from the NIH, her embracing of the Christian faith, and her discovery of the healing power of dreams--all were, she says, life-shaping events. Pert also explains her theory that neuropeptides and their receptors are the biochemicals of emotions, carrying information in a vast network linking the material world of molecules with the nonmaterial world of the psyche. Her views on mind-body cellular communication mesh well with the concepts of energy held by many alternative therapies, and she is now, not surprisingly, a popular lecturer on the wellness circuit. Her final chapter describes an eight-part program for a healthy lifestyle, and she has appended an extensive list of alternative medicine resources. Strong scientific support for the mind-body school of medicine, sure to rankle those alpha males back in the labs.

I think it's Edwards' baby. I just don't think it's Hunters.

Edward's wife Elizabeth is 4 years older than him, born July 3 1949. They had 2 kids, Wade in 1979 and Cate in 1982. Wade was killed in 1996 when his Jeep was blown off a road by strong winds. Shortly thereafter, the Edwards decided to have more children. They had Emma Claire in 1998 and Jack in 2000.

At the time Emma was born Elizabeth was 49. The odds of her becoming pregnant at that age with her own eggs is about 1:1,000,000. They have said that she underwent "fertility treatments" but it is almost certain that both Emma and Jack were the result of one or more egg donations.

They have never admitted that. Perhaps not even to the children. It is relatively common for DE (Donated Egg) parents to keep it a secret from everyone. There are MANY Hollywood celebrity mothers who have had DE children and won't admit it. When an actress has twins at age 50, it's DE.

When you do a DE procedure it's just like conventional IVF, except the Dr. changes patients between egg retrieval and embryo transfer. And if it works you almost always end up with extra embryos, stored frozen in liquid nitrogen in a lab.

There are a few things you can do with those frozens - or "Totsicles" as some of the DE people call them. If the parents want more kids they can be transfered, one or two at a time, into the mom in the hope that they'll take and become new babies. They can be thawed and flushed. They can be donated to science for stem cell research, or they can be donated to another childless couple that can't afford a full $40,000 donor egg cycle.

It isn't at all common, but they could also be implanted in a surrogate, to carry them to gestation. Parents might do that if they wanted more children but the mother couldn't carry a pregnancy to term. For example, she might have had a hysterectomy, or have a progressive disease like Parkinson's. Or she might be on Chemotherapy.

Like Elizabeth Edwards.

I think maybe that's what happened here. I think Rielle Hunter wasn't John Edward's mistress, or at least she was not JUST his mistress.

She's 44 and she's never had a child.  Her odds of conceiving without fertility help are about 1:100.

I think she was a surrogate. I think John and Elizabeth Edwards wanted another baby, but due to the chemo she couldn't carry one.

That 6 weeks between the cancer announcement and conception would be a horrible span, if Edwards was cheating on his wife then. But would be about the right amount of time to get a surrogate ready to accept an embryo. Since she became pregnant she's been put up in very nice private homes AND paid $15k/month - a little on the rich side but not that outlandish as a surrogate fee, and they were paying for more than a conventional surrogate. The payments seem to have continued after the birth, as Ms. Hunter has nursed the little girl. The plan may have been to wait until after the election then quietly adopt the little guy. After all, John McCain has an adopted daughter, why not the Edwards?