Edwards in June: Without Character ‘Ideas Don’t Matter’

Two months before admitting to an extramarital affair, former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards said that all presidential candidates should be judged by their character “because without it, the ideas don’t matter.”

Edwards said that a candidate’s “authenticity and character” demonstrates “how that person will respond in a tough wind,” during a June interview with Rolling Stone.

The North Carolina Democrat added that a candidate’s character reveals whether as president they would do “what they know is the right thing to do.”

“You’ve got to have a president who has strength and character, integrity. Because without it, the ideas don’t matter.”