 Superior Customer Service
I purchased the book as a gift for my Mom, so I don't have an opinion on the book's content. I rate the supplier as a "Superior" performer. She met all my expectations of quality customer service. I would most certainly purchase books, cds or similar items from "Sweet Bama" again.
 Fascinating inside look of a man who could have been President
This is a fascinating account of a behind the scenes look of John Edwards, a man who is self-centered, selfish, and egotistical. He thought of noone but himself and keeping his secret affair. Thank you, Andrew Young, for "coming out" and sharing important information that the public should have known about someone they thought was a good man, a good husband, and would be a good President. Also, Andrew Young writes of Mrs. Edwards who thankfully, will never be First Lady as she is as narcissitic as her husband. They deserved each other...but the country deserved neither. The books is well written, absolutely fascinating, and I couldn't put it down.
 Rings absolutely true
This author has been savaged as a worm, but his book is far less salacious and has more ring of truth than I expected. Having been around politicians all my life, I know this is no exaggeration or calculated payback. Anyone who thinks pols are anything but coldly calculating egotistical maniacs just doesn't know anything about pols, whether the local sheriff or a national political candidate. Saint Elizabeth manages to come off even worse than the Breck girl, Edwards. The only real question is how did a guy with so little political experience - one US Senate term - manage to get so far so fast? But if you don't think that everyone who has ever occupied the White House thinks and behaves exactly like Edwards, then you are naive. Great read. Just wish there were more photos than those on the dust jacket.
Double Portrait of Idealism and Ambition
This is Young's side of the bizarre story of John Edwards' rise and fall as a leading liberal candidate for the presidency. By the time the book was published, most of the information in it had already been made public: Edwards' affair with an ambitious, bleached-blonde slut named "Rielle Hunter," whose real name is Lisa Druck; Edwards' efforts to keep the affair secret while maintaining the façade of a faithful marriage with his cancer-stricken wife; his girlfriend's pregnancy and Edwards' sordid effort to have Young take responsibility for the pregnancy, even to the point of falsifying the results of a pregnancy test, all in the service of keeping Edwards a viable candidate in the presidential race.
What made this book such intriguing reading isn't the well-known story, but the double portrait Young paints of both Edwards and himself. As a candidate, Edwards had some genuinely good, progressive ideas, but he was undone by the combination of a ruthless drive for power and the sense of sexual entitlement that comes from being both handsome and politically in the ascendant. Young's picture of himself is unsparing as well. He began as a genuine idealist, entranced by Edwards' political progressivism, but that idealism was slowly swamped by a vision of himself as a powerful figure, essential to the well-being of a President. And it was this vision of himself that led him to become Edwards' factotum, willing to do whatever it took to keep Edwards on the road to the presidency.
I hope Young makes a lot of money from this book-- he deserves it after what he and his wife put up with from the self-centered Edwards, his demanding and arrogant wife Elizabeth, and from Edwards' rude, greedy and terminally tacky mistress.
Intriguing questions answered, but we'll never know the "truth"
In 2008, I distinctly remember hearing on the radio the news that a John Edwards staffer, Andrew Young, had claimed paternity for Rielle Hunter's child. I didn't believe it then and, of course, it has since been exposed as a lie. But what I wanted to know then was why someone would go along with such a ridiculous plan and why Edwards thought it would work.
Andrew Young's gripping book "The Politician" seeks to answer those questions. And I came away satisfied that one side of the story had been told fairly accurately. However, the craving for power and money seemingly inherent in us all can not be explained in a mere 301 pages. But those desires are the fuel that feeds this story and are clear motives not only for Edwards and Young but for their wives who are just as culpable in some ways. The chance for a grab at the ultimate prize in American politics seems to cause these four adults to act in ways that would otherwise be foreign to them. Near the end of this saga, Young's wife, Cheri, finds herself making three attempts to make a perfect cup of coffee for Edwards' diva of a mistress Rielle while they live in the same house together hiding from the press with the Youngs' three children, plus Edwards' love child! Huh?
Young tries to justify his actions by describing an environment of fear which he and his wife are caught up in leaving them to feel that they have no choice but to go along with the plan. The fears (unemployment, alienation, rejection) are real, but come after years of going along with what he should clearly have seen was a "negative work environment," to put it mildly. It's hard to feel sorry for him, but I admit the book is intriguing. The best writing is in the beginning and end when he draws parallels between his father's experience and Edwards'. He was close to both men and both betrayed his respect for them by the same human failing. The irony is compelling.
As far as this telling of the tale being "truth," there is a level of authenticity - Young describes his own mistakes like a DUI, but some of the confrontations he had with Edwards may have been written as he wished them to take place, even if he believes that he's portraying them accurately. Young claims to have documented much of the conversations/exchanges over the years, but how many of us remember details of conversations a week ago, much less five years ago. And he interprets the emotions and reactions of others for us, something only an omniscient narrator can accurately do. We will never know the whole truth of this story.
But the larger lessons are clear: money is irrevocably tied to politics in America. You must have great wealth or align yourself with those who have it to even have a chance at the highest levels of politics. Money and the promise of the power it can buy is what funded this mess. This is more unflattering to us as a nation than the fact that we might have put an adulterer in an office we like to think is reserved for those of high moral character. Instead of voting on principals or policies as we claim, we need to admit that we vote for celebrity more than anything. The fact that we treat our politicians just as we treat our star NBA players and rock stars is proof that we are to blame in this tragedy as well. We vote on image, not on who someone truly is.
|
