NY Daily News Story on Elizabeth Edwards Appears to be False

Morgen on September 27, 2009 at 3:57 pm

Drudge linked to a story in the NY Daily News today that, based on an anonymous source, claims Elizabeth Edwards has been trashing her husband’s former mistress Rielle Hunter in blog posts throughout the internet.

For months now, Elizabeth, who is said to be talking to a divorce lawyer, also has been sniping at Hunter – painting her as a blackmailing gold digger – in blog comments where she uses the pseudonym “Cherubim,” according to a source who knows Elizabeth.

Though “Cherubim” has recently described herself as an African-American woman, the source insists, “It’s Elizabeth. She’s used ‘cherubim’ as a password. Look at the gravestone of their son Wade: It’s an angel holding a boy.”

As it turns out, “Cherubim” commented here on VS in a story I posted about John Edwards several weeks ago which pointed out that Edwards had been more honest than Obama about health care reform. Cherubim’s comment was simply:

Cherubim
August 11, 2009 @ 1:18 pm
The John Edwards [plan] is excellent.
It is the one I have always, always supported.

However, based on a trace of the IP address associated with this comment, the evidence indicates that this was either another individual posting as “Cherubim”, or that the NY Daily News source is wrong. And I am inclined to believe the latter. Here’s why.

The same Cherubim that posted here apparently made this comment on another blog:

Cherubim Bean from Nashville, United States writes: We who are poor and lower middle class Americans want John and Elizabeth Edwards back as our spokespeople. We appreciate the fact that they are human beings who care about us.

If you watch the following videos from John’s Poverty Tour they will help clarify what we are requesting:(copy and paste the web addresses into your address bar.)

Residents of Whitesburg, Ky, a coal mining town

A foreclosed neighborhood, Cleveland, Ohio.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9i_GWrYkcCI

Chicken Plant Workers in Canton, Miss

9th Ward New Orleans, LA.

As we post, John Edwards is visiting The Fuller Center in El Salvador/

http://fullercenter.org/2009/05/former-us-senator-john-edwards-visiting-the-fuller-center-in-el-salvador/

I have read Resilience by Elizabeth Edwards. It is beautifully written, and a pleasure to read. The book is about love, family, hope, forgiveness and of course “Resilience”. The message of this book is timely; because resilience is exactly what Americans need right now.

Posted 16/05/09 at 12:15 AM EDT

I say “apparently”, because the location above (Nashville, TN) coincides with the source of the IP address of the Cherubim who posted here on VS, and the email address they listed when commenting here included “CherubimBean@”. So it appears that “Cherubim Bean” is the same commenter as just “Cherubim”. And their IP address indicates they reside in the Nashville, TN area.

Elizabeth Edwards as far as I can tell still resides in North Carolina – not Tennessee. And according to this report also from the NY Daily News, she was on hand in North Carolina for the opening of her new furniture store just over a week from when Cherubim posted on VS. So while it’s possible that Edwards travelled between Tennessee and North Carolina in the interim period, I think it’s unlikely.

Also, many of Cherubim’s comments, including the one on VS, are effusive in their praise of Edwards and/or his policies. Given the underlying situation involving the Edwards, I think it’s highly implausible that Mrs. Edwards would be praising her husband like this in public forums. And it seems much more plausible that whomever Cherubim is, as an obvious fan and supporter of John and Elizabeth Edwards, would take it on themselves to publicly trash Rielle Hunter. Especially given the impact these events had on Edwards’ presidential campaign.

And I think it’s equally unlikely – although not impossible – that there are two people including Edwards who are posting similar blog comments under the name Cherubim.

So based on the underlying data, and common sense, I’m going to say that the Daily News source is in all likelihood wrong on this.

Updated: modified the original post slightly for clarity. In case it wasn’t clear, my basic point is that the IP address for the “Cherubim” who posted here traces to a location near Nashville, TN. Since there doesn’t seem to be any recent connection to Nashville for Mrs. Edwards, I think it’s extremely unlikely that this was her. And the content and tone of many of Cherubim’s posts also don’t strike me as the type of thing that someone in Edwards’ situation would post. A somewhat more plausible theory would be that this is part of a PR/astroturf campaign to defend the Edwards against the tabloid allegations.

But I don’t buy this either. It’s easy to forget how devoted some of the supporters of John Edwards were. Remember that he actually ran to the left of both Obama and Clinton, and so there were some liberal diehards who were very disappointed when he withdrew from the campaign. Hard to believe, but true.

Category: MSM & Bias |