The News and Observer, Raleigh

Some points regarding the wisdom of investing large sums of public money to improve intercity rail service:

Track improvements benefit freight carriers as well as passenger operations. More capacity in rail corridors helps divert freight-hauling trucks from highways. That lessens the need for costly highway construction and repair, and also contributes to improved air quality.

Population density in an area such as the Triangle, while a valid concern when it comes to local commuter rail, is less of a factor in gauging the market for intercity passenger service. What’s more important is how many people travel to destinations such as Washington and Charlotte, within that medium-distance range where the hassle of flying often isn’t worth it and the time to drive is roughly the same.

Passenger train ridership hinges on speed and convenience (i.e., frequency of service). Train travel doesn’t have to become the default, replacing highways, for it to become a useful option for many people. And the “subsidy”? All transportation modes are subsidized by the public in one fashion or another. The main expectation should be that costs match up well with benefits.

Of course, when the federal government is looking to stimulate a bummed-out economy through infrastructure investment, rail becomes a logical candidate. President Barack Obama has bought into the concept of targeting rail spending on corridors where high-speed passenger service would likely be popular. That’s welcome news for North Carolina.

The Southeast High-Speed Rail Corridor runs through the Triangle’s heart, extending to Charlotte in one direction and Washington in the other. To complete it will cost much more than the $520 million that North Carolina now is set to receive. But this infusion will give the project added momentum.

The upshot, attainable perhaps over the next half-dozen years, could be passenger trains running between Raleigh and Charlotte in a little over two hours, and from Raleigh to D.C. in about four. That will sell tickets. And meanwhile, freight service would benefit as well.

The United States has lagged badly in keeping its rail networks up to the standards common in other advanced countries. Strengthening those networks will mean jobs and a broader range of transportation choices for both goods and people. It’s a very practical approach that Obama is smart to endorse.

John Edwards has run out of credibility

Winston-Salem Journal

Former U.S. Sen. John Edwards has a lot of apologizing to do. He’s embarrassed his state and his supporters. He’s humiliated his family and friends.

Worst of all, he’s denied his own daughter by telling the world he was not the father of this innocent little girl, and concocting lies to make his case. And he did this while knowing she was his child, his own flesh and blood.

If he had won the 2008 presidential election, the potential for blackmailing him over his extra-marital affair could have jeopardized national security. At the least, revelations about this affair and his dishonesty about it would have shamed the nation.

With two books out that tackle the subject, Edwards has finally come clean on his paternity of Frances Quinn Hunter, the child he fathered with Rielle Hunter during their affair, and apologized “to all those I have disappointed and hurt.”

The embarrassment will only continue when his former aide, Andrew Young, publishes his memoir, with widespread distribution this weekend.

For all, it would be best if Edwards just disappeared. It’s unlikely that anyone will take his apology seriously or believe his contrition.

But nothing he says beyond that — no explanation he offers — can have any credibility. Edwards has lied from the first day that the story of his affair broke. He was lying as he presented himself to the world as a man dedicated to his wife, who is battling cancer, and his children. This raises questions about the veracity of everything else he said as he served this state in the U.S. Senate and, then, as he ran for president.

Liars hurt a lot of people, and Edwards certainly did that. He hurt all of those around his family. Some day, when little Frances is grown and learns that her father first denied she was his, she will also be hurt.

Edwards also hurt the people who believed in him and trusted him. Hundreds of North Carolinians, both people who knew him while he was a Raleigh lawyer and those who only met him after he entered politics, put their faith in him. As his campaign manager, Gary Pearce, said recently, Edwards owes all of those people an apology.

These were conscientious people of all ages who gave his campaign money, who traveled across the country to work on his behalf and who gave much of their time, too. Most important, they put their hopes for this country in his care only to be betrayed by him. Finally, Edwards hurt all the good people in politics because he reinforced a negative stereotype of politicians.

Earlier this month, two political reporters published Game Change, a book about the 2008 campaign that included disturbing details about Edwards, his wife, Elizabeth, and the way they conducted their campaign. The embarrassment will only continue when his former aide, Andrew Young, publishes his memoir, with widespread distribution this weekend. Indications are that Young will provide even more detail about Edwards’ cheating.

For all, it would be best if Edwards just disappeared. It’s unlikely that anyone will take his apology seriously or believe his contrition.