In a coldly-calculated political move, John Edwards has now admitted that he had an affair, but did not father Rielle Hunter’s daughter, Frances Quinn Hunter.

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In an interview with ABC News Nightline admitted that he had an affair with Rielle Hunter and lied about it while campaigning for President.

UPDATES at end of story.
UPDATE #1: 17:17 EDT August 8 2008

In an interview for broadcast tonight on Nightline, Edwards told ABC News correspondent Bob Woodruff he did have an affair with 44-year old Rielle Hunter, but said that he did not love her.

Edwards also denied he was the father of Hunter’s baby girl, Frances Quinn, although the one-time Democratic Presidential candidate said he has not taken a paternity test.

Ironically, the announcement by Edwards on ABC was the first mention of the scandal, which has been brewing for nearly a year, about which the network’s viewers have heard.

Just a few days after leading Democrats called for Edwards to deny the affair or risk losing a prime speaking spot at the Democrat National Convention, Edwards did not deny the affair–something he has not done since a November 29, 2007 interview.

The political calculus is: Edwards hopes that his admission of having an affair will allow the incident to blow over, allowing him to proceed with his political career.

According to ABC News, which has refused to report on the event previously, “Edwards said he knew he was not the father based on timing of the baby’s birth on February 27, 2008. He said his affair ended too soon for him to have been the father.”

The announcement may prove to raise more questions than it answered.

One question which immediately comes to mind: What was Edwards doing leaving the Beverly Hilton at 2:40 in the morning, visiting a woman he says he did not love and her baby, which he says he did not father?

UPDATES to follow at DBKP.com

UPDATE #1: 17:17 EDT
[NOTE: Due to extraordinarily high traffic at the moment, our ability to post is being hampered, however, we are able to post–it’s just taking us a longer time. Readers may want to visit our Blogger and WordPress sites: DBKP@Blogger and DBKP@WordPress where we are cross-posting the Edwards’ article also.

What a difference a comma makes! Our original headline read, “John Edwards Scandal: Edwards Admits Affair, Lies to ABC News”. After seeing how that looked when viewed at Memeorandum, we realized that there ought to be a comma in there somewhere. The new headline reflects our original intent of the story.

Although, on second thought, after events end up playing out, who knows?

by Mondoreb