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Preening Edwards Worse Than a Ken Doll

Even his confession to narcissism was narcissistic

By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff

Posted Aug 10, 2008 11:41 AM CDT
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(Newser) – The real John Edwards shocker was not so much his affair, but his admission of narcisissm—yet even that confession was oddly self-loving, writes Maureen Dowd in the New York Times. While "it isn’t like we didn’t know that the son of a millworker was a little enraptured by himself," and “certain men assume that power confers sexual privilege,” his self-absorbed confession that he felt “special” and “invincible” leads Dowd to rescind an earlier comparison of Edwards to a Ken doll as “not fair—to Ken.”

Why is it that “super-strivers,” such as Edwards, “have a need to sell what is secretly weakest about themselves”? Clinton the intellectual was stupid about Monica. Dubya plays the take-charge guy when he’s not running the show. And now Edwards, who called for “a moral, honest, just America,” cheated on his cancer-stricken wife. It was in remission, however—so at least his affair was “oncologically correct,” Dowd writes.

Ken doesn't deserve to be compared with Edwards, Dowd writes.
Ken doesn't deserve to be compared with Edwards, Dowd writes.   (Getty Images)
Edwards in one of the videos made by Rielle Hunter, with whom he had an affair.
Edwards in one of the videos made by Rielle Hunter, with whom he had an affair.   (AP Photo)
Former Democratic presidential hopeful and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards.
Former Democratic presidential hopeful and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards.   (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
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