The Wacky Races

With Iowa looming like a mountain that must be surmounted by the candidates, the tempo of 'shocking revelations' and crass pandering has increased.

First off on the Democratic side, we have the tawdry National Enquirer leveling some very damaging allegations against former Senator John Edwards. Namely Mr. Edwards has fathered out of wedlock a child with a staffer. The staffer no longer works for the Edwards campaign but she is well along in her pregnancy. Now if this salacious gossip is proven true, well the Edwards campaign is pretty well sunk. He could not hide behind the excuse of 'its a personal matter' since his wife Elizabeth, the one living with cancer, has been a very visible part of his campaign. Only the die-hard dead-enders who have lashed themselves to the Edwards ship will stick around.

On the Republican side, one candidate has stripped away the tissue-thin gauze of respectability he still wore with his latest admissions about who his contributors are. Many had wondered if the campaign contribution from the owner of the Stormfront web-site would be returned like it had anthrax. We have to wonder no more as Ron Paul has welcomed such contributions publicly. Anyone who now espouses support for Ron Paul now has to wrestle with the disturbing idea they might be campaigning for David Duke-lite. And the Dems were worried about a new Reichstag fire today, if Ron Paul gets in anything like that is possible.