The real story behind John Edwards’ admission that he had an affair

wasn’t his adulterous behavior, but the fact that the former North

Carolina senator and Democratic vice presidential nominee had a chance

to confess before he was outed by the mainstream media. This story has

lingered since Oct. 10, 2007, when the National Enquirer — insert your

own joke, but the tabloid has reshaped its image and proven again that

it can deliver a major scoop — first published that Edwards had an

affair with Rielle Hunter, a resume-lacking blonde who had been overpaid

Enquirer followed with a Dec. 19, 2007, story that Hunter was pregnant

with Edwards’ child. Edwards and Hunter both denied an affair, and none

of the mainstream media picked up the story, even after the Enquirer

published photographs last week of Edwards and his “love child.” Only

after Edwards’ confession did the mainstream media take notice. There

have been incredible defenses of the media’s lack of interest in what is

now treated as a major story. They included a desire to be deferential

to Edwards’ wife, who has terminal cancer, and that Edwards, having

exited the presidential race, was no longer worthy of ink. Although Bill

Clinton’s presidency has numbed the nation to charges of infidelity by

politicians, Edwards’ behavior, and the media’s free pass, could have

consequences. Imagine if Edwards’ “two Americas” theme had resonated

with the public, he had built on his second-place finish in the Iowa

caucuses, and eventually become the Democratic nominee for president.

And then imagine that the Enquirer had sat on the story until the eve of

the General Election. But a more likely scenario is, had the media done

its job and chased this story in a timely fashion, the way the

Democratic nomination process had unfolded would have been different,

and it might be Hillary Clinton — and not Barack Obama — as the nominee.

While Edwards would like the story to die, it won’t. He continues to

deny that Hunter’s child is his, but that leaves him to explain why he

was cradling the child at a Los Angeles hotel during a late-night,

early-morning rendezvous with Hunter during July. Also, could Edwards,

as he claims, not have known that the finance chairman of his campaign

staff paid Hunter and Andrew Young — the man who claims to have fathered

Hunter’s child — to move from North Carolina into palatial homes in

California? It is an irony that it will now be the mainstream media that

mines this story the hardest. Whatever gold they discover, however, will

belong in part to the Enquirer, who schooled them on this story.