Snippet from an email

No, Afghanistan hasn't cost us nearly as much as Iraq, though in retrospect I don't think it benefited us.  It wasn't a good decision, to do anything more than retaliate against al-Qaeda.

I went to see John Edwards at a rally at a union hall in St. Paul--the evening before he suddenly dropped out.  I was already behind Obama and attended the Edwards rally just to experience it and have something to blog about.  At the packed hall, there was a great deal of waiting and listening to boring nobodies--then Edwards spoke and people were very pumped up.  Then he walked all through the crowd, shaking hands with everyone--rather breathtaking, for a major presidential candidate. 

He was surprisingly short, as I recall, and one could see how he might set off a certain kind of woman--his charisma had a whiff of sexual wandering about it, I can see in retrospect.  Human motivation is of course an immensely complex topic; your question suggests Edwards was/is perfectly sincere or an utter fraud--and I don't think any of us works that way.  I'm not even sure that sexual infidelity reveals much, about one's faithfulness in business or political relationships.  Pol Pot was said to be a very faithful husband.

That said, even prior to his downfall, Edwards form of 'straight talk' never really registered as straight talk, to me.  I didn't dislike him, but I didn't believe he was presenting any economically viable plan for wealth redistribution.  (Nor do I consider serious wealth redistribution to get far, politically, anytime soon--and I'm not sure it would even be possible, logistically, within this social order.)  Given the present make-up of Congress, I don't think a lefter president would have much effect; I think Obama is about as good as we can hope for, at this moment.