Follow this link for a review in The Daily Beast of the book about John Edwards.

Say this for John Edwards and Andrew Young, the author of a chilling new memoir: they deserved each other.

Previously RichardH had sent me this link to Grifters’ Tale, a comparison of the John Edwards phenomenon to the Sarah Palin phenomenon.

I hope these stories don’t lead to a new cynicism that all politicians are like this.  I figure that when a person has an extraordinary ability to move people with his or her words, they could very easily realize they can use that ability for nefarious purposes.  Almost by definition, a successful politician has this extraordinary ability. Not every person with this ability becomes a con artist.  Some become trial lawyers, beauty queens, or movie stars. Perhaps for beauty queens and movie stars the looks move people and the words don’t matter.  Maybe the looks even work for some trial lawyers.

Of course, some con artists may just realize they can use their skills for political purposes.