From a damage control point of view, Edwards gets big time points for admitting his sins on the same night that the Olympics opening ceremonies are drawing huge ratings on NBC.

Now THAT is good planning.

Bad planning though might be the admission that Edwards had gone to California to meet up with the old flame - and her baby - without telling Mrs. Edwards about that little side trip.

Meanwhile, I'm still wondering why the National Enquirer doesn't have some better photos of Edwards from that wacky encounter at the Beverly Hills Hilton last month.

On one hand, you just have to love the drive of these Presidential types. They can get themselves in a jam like this and not seem to worry one bit about whether it should derail their White House dreams.

Just think if somehow Edwards had become the nominee. Yikes.

Then we have to spend a few minutes examining the reaction of my colleagues, the "Mainstream Media."

This is definitely a story where we were pleased to have cyberspace helping the National Enquirer along the way.

If not for the internet buzz about this story, Edwards just might have been able to escape, though the Enquirer was clearly doing as much as it could to bust this one wide open.

It is easy for people to say, "Well, the big papers were covering up for Edwards," etc.

But the terrible truth is, these type of stories are horrendously hard to pin down.

And there isn't any convenient Style Guide on how you are supposed to handle stuff like this.

On one hand, the guy was running for President.

On the other hand, the guy WAS running for President. In the past tense. He did not seem to be in the running for Barack Obama's VP.

Is he still "fair game" as a "public" figure at that point. I would lean toward yes, but it's not a slam dunk by anyone.

I do love all the reviews where people are talking about Edwards being a viable candidate in the future. Some of that stuff does fade away.

Then again, some of it does not.