JOHN EDWARDS: A.K.A. Mr. uhhmm..."SMITH"

I usually don't pay much attention to anything that comes from the pages of the National Inquirer, but this week I decided to make a "change". Get it? "Change?" When word leaked about the Inquirer's impending story about John Edwards' alleged affair and resulting "love child", it wasn't the story itself that I found interesting. In fact, I immediately assumed it was just another headline designed to grab the attention of old ladies in the checkout line at the grocery store. But then I started to give it some thought.

The Inquirer is a paper that is no stranger to litigation. In fact, it has lost more than one lawsuit in recent years costing them hundreds of millions of dollars, as well as credibility. So that begs the question: If you were going to make up stories about someone famous, would you pick a famous trial lawyer? Would you risk the company wad going after someone who has become a multi-millionaire by taking apart billion dollar industries in a courtroom? Would you make up stories about someone who is as closely watched and documented as a Vice Presidential candidate? I liken this to me picking a fight with Kimbo Slice.

Then there is the Edwards angle as well. If you were falsely accused of sleeping around and fathering a child illegitimately, wouldn't you fight for your reputation? Wouldn't you fight for your marriage? Wouldn't your first order of business be a press conference where you tell the public that you are submitting DNA test swabs and making the results public as soon as they are returned? Wouldn't your second order of business be to tell the media that your team of cut-throat attorneys are busy starting the litigation process as we speak? Wouldn't you be the next owner of the National Inquirer?

Strangely, this has not been Edwards' reaction as of yet. Either the Inquirer has made the biggest mistake in judgement in the history of the printed word, or there is something to this story. The media's silence is deafening, but not surprising. That makes me wonder if they knew something about Obama's VP choice that we didn't.