"I never much liked Edwards as a politician," writes Time Magazine's Joe Klein.

Here at TPM, Josh Marshall argues that Edwards was reckless to run for the nomination because his affair definitely would have come out and it would have hurt his chances had he won the nomination.

Well, it's hard to argue with Josh's point.  But... Edwards was never going to win the nomination and this had nothing to do with his personal life or his political style.  The fact is, he wasn't even taken that seriously at TPM.  It was mostly about Obama and Hillary from pretty much day one.  In the rest of the media, Edwards was left out almost entirely.  Heck, before people like me who really liked Edwards' populist message could even get excited about his candidacy we were having to argue that he had the right to stay in the campaign.  Indeed it was Joe Klein over at Swampland who I first saw argue that Edwards had a moral obligation to drop out so that voters could get down to the serious business of choosing between Hillary and Obama.

I hope we don't forget that Edwards' campaign was not torpedoed by this affair.  Edwards was a totally legitimate candidate with a message that differed from both Hillary and Obama who was basically pushed out of contention by a media that for whatever reason didn't like him.  I think they're happy about the affair because it'll keep Edwards from making a comeback anytime soon, or from getting an appointment in an Obama administration.  Which is too bad because he'd make a great attorney general, affair or no.