The Politician: An Insider’s Account of John Edwards’s Pursuit of the Presidency and the Scandal That Brought Him Down

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The greatest political saga, the one that has it all, that gets to the real heart of American politics, is the John Edwards story… This isnt just politics, its literature. Its the great American novel, the kind that isnt written anymore. —Michael Wolff on John Edwards’s trajectory, on VanityFair.com

The underside of modern American politics — raw ambition, manipulation, and deception — are revealed in detail by Andrew Youngs riveting account of a presidential hopefuls meteoric rise and scandalous fall. Like a non-fiction version of All the Kings Men, The Politician offers a truly disturbing, even shocking perspective on the risks taken and tactics employed by a man determined to rule the most powerful nation on earth.

Idealistic and ambitious, Andrew Young volunteered for the John Edwards campaign for Senate in 1998 and quickly became the candidates right hand man. As the senator became a national star, Youngs responsibilities grew. For a decade he was this politicians confidant and he was assured he was like family. In time, however, Young was drawn into a series of questionable assignments that culminated with Edwards asking him to help conceal the Senators ongoing adultery. Days before the 2008 presidential primaries began, Young gained international notoriety when he told the world that he was the father of a child being carried by a woman named Rielle Hunter, who was actually the senators mistress. While Young began a life on the run, hiding from the press with his family and alleged mistress, John Edwards continued to pursue the presidency and then the Vice Presidency in the future Obama administration.

Young had been the senators closest aide and most trusted friend. He believed that John Edwards could be a great president, and was assured throughout the cover-up that his boss and friend would ultimately step forward to both tell the truth and protect his aides career. Neither promise was kept. Not only a moving personal account of Andrew Youngs political education, THE POLITICIAN offers a look at the trajectory which made John Edwards the ideal Democratic candidate for president, and the hubris which brought him down, leaving his career, his marriage and his dreams in ashes.