What people are saying

Former Sen. Lauch Faircloth, who lost a re-election bid to Edwards in 1998, said he was puzzled why Edwards would go on national television to talk about his failings.

He noted that Edwards previously called the National Enquirer story "tabloid trash."

"He said this newspaper, the Enquirer, he said it was trash," Faircloth said. "Well, if there's anybody ought to know about trash, it's him."

Julie Brown, a 45-year-old Des Moines businesswoman who campaigned for Edwards, was still trying to sort out the news.

"There is disappointment in the man," Brown said. "But I am determined to continue to carry on what he stands for."

Former U.S. Rep. David Bonior of Michigan, Edwards' former campaign manager, said the revelation of the affair had shaken his confidence in whether the full story had been revealed. The former congressman noted that Edwards had already had the affair when he launched his campaign.

"You should not run for president. We've had enough of this in politics. All of us are human, but if you do engage in this kind of activity, it should disqualify you from certain things, and that's one of them."

"He should be setting an example, but on the other hand, there's a lot of people out there doing no better," said David Wilkes, a Raleigh resident interviewed Friday afternoon.

"I'm just being very angry and disappointed," said Laurie McCray, a friend and longtime New Hampshire supporter. "Elizabeth has a perspective on life that many of us admire, and I know she will have a strength and a way to get through this."

John Edwards, speaking about President Clinton and Monica Lewinksy in 1999:

"I think this president has shown a remarkable disrespect for his office, for the moral dimensions of leadership, for his friends, for his wife, for his precious daughter. It is breathtaking to me the level to which that disrespect has risen."

(COMPILED BY STAFF WRITERS RYAN TEAGUE BECKWITH, ROB CHRISTENSEN, BENJAMIN NIOLET AND KRISTIN BUTLER, AND MARK JOHNSON AND LISA ZAGAROLI OF THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER)