Edwards' staged wedding-vow renewal

Michelle Malkin recalls the "major gushing" over the People magazine photos of John and Elizabeth Edwards' 2007 renewal of their wedding vows, by Diane Sawyer on "Good Morning America":

[W]e have the very first pictures of a very personal backyard ceremony for John Edwards and his wife.
Elizabeth Edwards is talking in a new chapter for her memoirs 'Saving Graces' about her life right now and the renewal of their vows. And we'll show you those pictures, walking down the aisle again."

Here's Elizabeth Edwards at the July 2007 "BlogHer" conference, talking about "values" and religion and renewing her wedding vows:

Hey, Amanda Marcotte, why don't you tell us again why this really isn't a scandal, because Edwards can't be accused of hypocrisy? I mean, here was Edwards, six months before the Iowa caucuses, getting People magazine coverage of his wedding-vow renewal ceremony and ABC News pitching his wife's book -- but none of this is hypocritical, is it?

UPDATE: Lee Stranahan, the kind of liberal true believer who doesn't disillusion easily, puts it bluntly:

I am left with a very uncomfortable truth -- both John and Elizabeth Edwards cynically used their marriage as a means to help John Edwards win an election. . . .
[I]f you gave John and Elizabeth Edwards time, money, support, or goodwill, they played you.
They made a conscious decision to make their relationship a focus throughout the campaign.

A sucker is born every minute.

UPDATE II: Roger Simon is willing to cut Elizabeth Edwards some slack:

Of course, if she knows it’s all BS and she’s still covering up for her husband, well, we’re all entitled to our personal Stockholm Syndromes.

But ... the personal is political!