Former United States Senator and Democratic candidate for Vice President in 2004 John Edwards has become the most recent fellow caught in one of the oldest and most common predicaments among men.  Joe America wouldn’t see his name in the news, print or screen, for such an indiscretion, but then again, Joe didn’t aspire to the country’s highest office, or have his waxed public wings melt as he flew too close to the sun.  For the moment, the Edwards star is waning, and it is for others to debate whether it should. We should be more concerned with another of its aspects.

Hubris is defined as “overbearing pride or presumption,” and it is a quality every candidate for the United States presidency has, even those we choose for ourselves to support.  The leader of the free world, the most visible person on the planet, the one every other person hears or reads about whether we want to or not – - – it’s pretty heady tonic holding that power in one’s hands.  Anyone who deems himself or herself suitable for it suffers from that “overbearing presumption.”

Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee for the presidency, has displayed something of that quality of late, and got called on it.  Rightly so, too.  “This is the moment … that the world is waiting for,” he is reported to have said, and adding: “I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions” – - – a little full of himself, it would seem.

Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for the presidency, has unclean hands as well, and the story is as equally sad as is the Edwards act of infidelity while his wife was recovering from cancer.  The first Mrs. McCain, Carol, was a tall and lovely swimming suit model who married McCain in 1965.  She was the woman he dreamed of while in the captivity of the North Vietnamese for five years, and when he returned to the United States, he found her not the woman of his dreams.

She had been severely injured in an automobile crash, had 23 surgeries, and had become disfigured, her former satuesque height reduced to 5 ft 4 inches when surgeons were forced to removed large portions of shattered bone in her legs.  She had remained at home, raising their children, loyal to McCain during his captivity, but she no longer matched the dream that, in part, had sustained him.  McCain divorced her in 1980, and one month later married his current wife, Cynthia, 18 years his junior and heir to an Arizona brewing fortune.

Twenty-eight years have passed since then, and now McCain will be the Republican nominee for president of the United States.  He had come close in 2000 to becoming his party’s nominee, only 20 years removed from his moment of marital conscience.  Perhaps Edwards can recover from his moment, too.  Former President Bill Clinton overcame Jennifer Flowers,  his White House hummers and impeachment hearings, and remains a popular Democratic figure today, too, as mystifying as that is.  Senator Hillary Clinton had her own share of legal travails while First Lady and came out of them sufficiently unstained to have almost grasped her party’s nomination for president.

The Edwards matter is not so much the sex, and not even that the sex occurred while his wife was recovering from cancer.  It is about his belief that he was an “untouchable.”  We all remember our catechism lessons and the seven deadly sins – - pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy and sloth – - and it seems Edwards is three for seven.  That’s a good batting average in baseball, but in politics it’s deadly when you get caught stealing second.

Time has a way of healing virtually any sin, though, or so it would seem.  He’ll do his penance, and we’re not talking a lot of prayers – - his penance will be time passing.  He has the McCain example to follow, as well as the two Clinton models.  Confession is good for the soul, and it is good for politicians to be soulful in that regard.  So, he’s taken the first step in recovery.

He’ll do the rounds, make the public appearances, and his wife most likely will accompany him.  It might be cynical to suggest,  but it’s very likely she was aware of the infidelity even while it was happening.  Then, they will retire from the public, and he will do his good deeds, rebuild his portfolio, and when sufficient time has passed, he will resurface.  Even Jimmy Swaggart continues to preach today, for heaven’s sake.

The healing value of time no matter the sin – - do you think our Creator is as forgiving as we are?  I think we all better pray so.