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May 16, 2008 10:34

John Edwards stole my joke on air

Posted by Lisa Takeuchi Cullen | Comments (9) | Permalink | Trackbacks (0) | Email This

I was sitting in a makeup chair at the Today Show this morning when who should slip in next to me but the former presidential candidate. Three first impressions:

• John Edwards really does have great hair.
• John Edwards seems to have a permatan.
• John Edwards had a headache.

The former senator said his contacts had given him a headache, so the makeup lady gave him some drops. When he settled in, the TV monitor began to blare with the sound of throngs of shrieking thirtysomethings outside.

"Wow, Senator," I said. "You've got a lot of fans."

He laughed. John Edwards has a really nice laugh. The fans, of course, were in fact there to see the first reunion in 15 years of the '90s boy band New Kids on the Block. Someone mentioned the crowds knew the words to every song.

"Just like they know all the words to your speeches," I said to John Edwards. "'Two Americas!'"

He laughed again. John Edwards is basically a really nice man who's accustomed to hearing retarded jokes from strangers.

Then it happened. When he got on air, he led with: "I thought all those fans outside were for me!" John Edwards totally stole my joke! Not that I mind. He's dreamy. I'd vote for him. I wish he'd run for president or something.

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Reader Comments (9)

Prklypear:

Sorry Lisa, he hardly stole your joke. He seems to be a fairly intelligent person (as are you), I'm sure it occurred to him same as it occurred to you. It was an obvious set-up, you just happened to use it first. Now if he had used your comment about the fans knowing all the words to his speeches (which was pretty funny!), that would have been stealing!

Posted by Prklypear | May 16, 2008 3:15 PM

hrwench

He did really well last time he was on Colbert Report. I was seriously impresssed.

Posted by hrwench | May 16, 2008 3:53 PM

Gerry

He did steal your joke. And as a lawyer he made tons of dough claiming malpractice causes cerbral palsy (http://www.cnsnews.com/viewpolitics.asp?page=%5Cpolitics%5Carchive%5C200401%5Cpol20040120a.html). I'm glad he's didn't get the Democratic nomination.

Posted by Gerry | May 16, 2008 6:19 PM

Malcolm:

Gerry,
The article you cite asserts that most (but not necessarily all) cases of cerebral palsy are not caused by medical malpractice and that Edwards made much of his fortune litigating such cases, but it does not claim or offer any evidence that for any of his cases the plaintiff that he represented was NOT the victim of malpractice.

He made a lot of money, but his clients made even more, so his fee was certainly worth it to them. He was paid for the value that he provided.

Posted by Malcolm | May 18, 2008 6:59 AM

Gerry

Malcolm,

Here's what I read in the link I posted:

"But some of Edwards' critics say that as a trial lawyer, he relied more on his verbal skills than the latest scientific evidence to persuade juries that the doctors' mistakes had been instrumental in causing the cerebral palsy in the infants."

Because of John Edwards and other malpractice lawyers, the rate of c sections has increased but the incidence of cerebral palsy has not decreased. Here's the abstract of an article that appeared in the American Journal of Obstetric Gynecology: http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S000293780271524X.

He made his case not based on facts but on emotion--during the trial imitated the voice of a baby in distress. No one should want such a manipulator as president.

Posted by Gerry | May 18, 2008 9:17 PM

Malcolm:

Gerry,
Just because he appealed to emotions (a more effective trial technique than appealing to reason) does not mean that his cases were without scientific merit. Nowhere in this article does it assert that any of his particular clients' cerebral palsy was not caused by malpractice.

Posted by Malcolm | May 19, 2008 10:22 AM

Gerry

And nowhere does it say that they were. One would hope that individual cases would have to be proved. Perhaps I'm too idealistic.

Posted by Gerry | May 19, 2008 11:23 AM

Lisa Takeuchi Cullen

prklypear: i know he didn't steal my joke. but it's funnier if i say he did, right?

Posted by Lisa Takeuchi Cullen | May 19, 2008 2:38 PM

nero

Posted by nero | July 7, 2008 6:44 PM

About Work In Progress

Nina Subin

Lisa Takeuchi Cullen is a staff writer for TIME. She blogs about work. Why? Because TV was taken. Think of her as the grumpy colleague ranting by the water cooler.
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lisa_cullen at timemagazine.com

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May 16, 2008 10:34

John Edwards stole my joke on air

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