Shades of John Edwards at glamorous Fashion Island

Tonight, we went out for a snack-- with the additional mission to buy two political books--The Game Change book on the election and The Politician, about the John Edwards scandal. I used to like J Edwards, being a Southerner myself and all, and I liked his ambitions for poor people to be recognized and helped. I also liked that his accent was real and that he represented that accent well, because there is still a stereotype of the "ignorant Southerner" when people hear a REAL accent versus actors, on tv. Yankee jest don't know no better, I reckon. I also had my suspicions that he was too good-looking to be true to his wife, but they were VERY persuasive folks, he and Mrs. Edwards. (She should change her name now.) So I think I want to read the book, although it sort of sickens me to read it and I also hate to give royalty money to the author, Andrew Young. Still....the parking lot was full of expensive cars, BMW, Range Rover, Mercedes, and of course, there is always a Ferrari or Maserati to be seen. But the food court was rather empty. Pasta Bravo, sadly, told us they throw out the trays of delicious-looking hot pasta at the end of the night, rather than giving it to a food bank, or even employees, so while I watched a Latin woman in her prettified, Irvine-company-sanctioned work uniform roll a garbage can around past the large central fountain, I hated to think of she or her kids not being able to eat the food which was destined for the trash can. Still...we ate, and I bought a National Geographic magazine rather than the political books, because the Edwards one is sold out, and the other one, on inspection, just seemed too maddening to read. We walked around and called it a night, and drove back home. Just a night in the lives of two happily married newlyweds who, to the viewer, look as if they never noticed the woman rolling her trash can with dedication despite her visible strain, who have the money to buy books if they so chose. I felt as if it were a modern Great Depression experience, with the shuttered food court stores, almost half closed for business now, tastefully darkened and decorated with large images of palm trees and fashionable women in $2,000-dollar dresses. But money was nearby--the "haves" were there somewhere, their high-end cars filling the most popular parking lots, while the have-nots were in my mind as I watched the steaming pasta expire on the Pasta Bravo serving bar. Was there a party going on I failed to see? It's like John Edwards, who looked and talked so damn good but whose glamorous appearance masked the dry rot underneath. Despite the cost to the people involved and our own country, the rich in that scandal have stayed rich...and the poor he claimed he wanted to help stayed poor. Damn it, John Edwards, you had a chance and you blew it.