John Edwards

Former presidential candidate John Edwards and his wife Elizabeth have cancelled their appearance at Salem State College, according to the school. 

The couple was scheduled to appear at the college on Sept. 23 as part of a speakers’ series to discuss the 2008 presidential election and Elizabeth Edwards’ battle with cancer.

Since scheduling the event, Edwards admitted to having an affair with Rielle Hunter, an amateur filmmaker who chronicled his campaign. Salem State had previously said that the Edwards event was still on, but said in a release Tuesday that the couple decided to cancel the event.

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DENVER -- A New Hampshire delegate for former U.S. Sen. John Edwards is torn over the absence from the Democratic National Convention of the man he supported during the New Hampshire primary.

State Sen. Peter Burling (D-Cornish) said "there's a yes and no answer" when asked whether he was disappointed that Edwards would not be speaking at the convention.

Former state Democratic Party Chair Phil Johnston has the zinger of the day. In a New York Times article about John Edwards and Joe Lieberman's absence from the DNC Convention in Denver, he weighed in on who was worse.

Warren County Democratic Party Chairman Mike Sedita: Politicker photo 

DENVER - Warren County, certainly no Democratic Party stronghold.

But that fact didn’t stop County Party chairman Mike Sedita from making the trek out here to back up his fellow Democrats.

Sitting at one of the tables in the Spotted Dog bar in the basement of the Inverness Hotel, Sedita cleared it up right away that he was disappointed Sen. John Edwards (D-SC) detonated his political career with an extramarital affair.

Sedita had been one of the linesmen for the Edwards campaign in New Jersey.

Though U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Denver) has been very public recently in welcoming Democrats to Denver, he’s glad disgraced former presidential candidate John Edwards is nowhere in sight.

Edwards was scheduled to speak during the Democratic National convention, but he was dropped from the program following his admission of having an affair with a campaign videographer.

"(Edwards' affair) was wrong and from my point of view, as one of the hosts of the convention, I’m glad he’s not here," Salazar said to reporters Saturday afternoon.

Over the last twenty years, five of eight vice presidential candidates had defeated incumbents in races for the United States Senate.  Joseph Biden, who was picked as the Democratic VP candidate on Saturday, won a U.S. Senate seat in 1972 when he upset J. Caleb Boggs, a two-term incumbent and a former Governor of Delaware. 

John Edwards defeated one-term U.S. Sen.   Lauch Faircloth in North Carolina in 1998; in 1988, Joe Lieberman ousted three-term U.S. Sen. Lowell Weicker in Connecticut; Dan Quayle beat Birch Bayh, a three-term U.S. Senator from Indiana; and in the 1970 Democratic U.S. Senate primary in Texas, Lloyd Bentsen upset the incumbent, Ralph Yarborough. 

But during the same time period, just one of the three successful candidates for Vice President – Quayle -- had ever defeated an incumbent.  Al Gore won open seats for the House (1976) and Senate (1984), and Richard Cheney won an open seat for the House in 1978.  Another VP candidate, Jack Kemp in 1996, had never run against an incumbent.  Kemp won his House seat in 1969 special election.

This week children's toys are a bit safer and the Erickson campaign is stirring up controversy at local county fairs. Here are this week's Winners & Losers.

A vice chairman of the state legislature's Joint Committee on Higher Education defended Salem State College's decision to honor their speaking contract with John and Elizabeth Edwards, saying that it speaks to the strength of the university's dedication to free speech.

Salem State booked the Edwardses for a Sept. 23 speakers series event in July and has maintained that the event is going forward as planned despite John Edwards confessing to having an affair in an interview with ABC News last week. 

In an interview with PolitickerMA.com, state Rep. Theodore Speliotis (D-Danvers), a vice chairman of the Joint Committee on Higher Education, stood behind Salem State's decision to go on with the event.

"The decision reflects the strength of the college and the program," he said. "If they continue to meet that obligation and still wish to speak the program is only going to be richer from it."

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins believes that former presidential candidate and Sen. John Edwards (D-North Carolina) did have a child out of wedlock, according to her comments on a recent Q Morning Show interview.

Edwards recently admitted to having an affair.

The radio hosts brought up the topic before addressing energy and health care issues.

“I feel sorry for his family, because how horrible. But also don’t you think he is the father of the child?” Collins said on the show.

“Of course he is!” the host remarked.