The mainstream media finally picked up on the John Edwards affair story and the big story line seems to be that this is going to bring down Obama. How that is, is not made clear, but I think Joe Klein from Time asks the right question:

Commenter Ralph wants to know:

Why is Edwards's adultery a problem for Obama, while McCain's adultery is not a problem for McCain?

The answer is: Edwards' adultery is not a problem for Obama any more than Larry Craig's importunings should be a problem for McCain. As for McCain's alleged adultery--it's been denied by both parties and I really don't care about the Senator's sex life. I do care about the fact that he is running a campaign filled with lies about his opponent's positions, a campaign that is conducted in a snarky, subversive tone that is entirely inappropriate to American politics. I wish my colleagues would spend more time talking about what a disservice McCain is doing the country and less time "analyzing" why McCain has to tear down Obama in order to win. (If tearing down Obama is the only way he can win--and this should be obvious, but apparently it isn't--McCain doesn't deserve to win.)

Smart words. I wish that you heard similiar things from Senator Clinton's still bitter staff:

Sen. Hillary Clinton would be the Democratic presidential nominee if John Edwards had been caught in his lie about an extramarital affair and forced out of the race last year, insists a top Clinton campaign aide, making a charge that could exacerbate previously existing tensions between the camps of Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama.

"I believe we would have won Iowa, and Clinton today would therefore have been the nominee," former Clinton Communications Director Howard Wolfson told ABCNews.com.