Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.

Washington Post chief political reporter Dan Balz was online Monday, August 11 at 11 a.m. ET.

The transcript follows.

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Archive: Post Politics Hour discussion transcripts

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Dan Balz: Good morning to everyone. Sen. McCain is on the campaign trail. Sen. Obama is on the beach or the golf course in Hawaii. President Bush is on his way back from the Olympics. The campaigns are pointing toward their conventions. In two weeks, the Democrats will be raising the curtain on theirs. And of course, there's also the John Edwards story. I'll try to answer as many of your questions as possible. Thanks for joining up.

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St. Paul, Minn.: Hi Dan -- thank you for taking questions today. I heard something over the weekend about Sen. McCain possibly making a pledge to serve only one term if elected. What are the pros and cons of this? Does it help reassure potential voters that he's aware of the "age issue," or merely magnify it? (Not to mention the pressure that it puts on the selection of his running mate, and on the running mate if McCain wins...) Has this ever happened in the past?

Dan Balz: There has been talk about this ever since Sen. McCain made clear he was going to run in 2008 but so far there has been no definitive pledge. Certain, given concerns about his age, there would be some reason to do this. Also, perhaps voters would feel that, if he was planning to serve only one term, he would feel less encumbered to try to do some crockery-breaking initiatives to change Washington. But there are risks as well, including that such a pledge might draw even more attention to his age.

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Raleigh, N.C.: Good morning! Let's get into the sewer -- not because we want to, but because we have to. Does the Edwards affair hurt Obama more because Edwards is a Democrat and was talked about as a potential attorney general? Or does it hurt McCain, who himself had affairs while married to a sick wife (albeit 30 years ago)?

Dan Balz: I doubt it will have much effect on anyone other than John Edwards. He did endorse Obama, but talk of him being attorney general was as rampant when both Obama and Senator Clinton were seeking his endorsement. Nor does it necessarily affect McCain. McCain's marital history has been out there for a long time. The person this hurts most is John Edwards.

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Fossil, Ore.: I understand that John McCain has not been present for a Senate vote since April. With that in mind, how can he be so critical of the Senate taking a month's vacation, and saying that if he were president he would call them back into session? Perhaps it is time for some new legislation to cover House and Senate members running for offices, providing a leave of absence from their "day jobs."

Dan Balz: I think this falls under the definition of opportunistic politics. The McCain team believes that he has an advantage on the energy issue and wants to do everything possible to press that advantage. Saying he would call Congress back if he were president is one way of trying to do that. The fact that he has been absent for so long may not register with most people, who don't pay close attention to the attendance records of members of Congress--until an opponent makes an issue of it. Does anyone remember the famous bloodhound ad run by Mitch McConnell that helped sink Dee Huddleston of Kentucky in the 1984 Senate race?

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Bow, N.H.: Why do we seem to care about the marital issues of a former candidate (Edwards) but not about the marital issues of a current candidate (McCain)?

Dan Balz: When John Edwards confessed to his affair with Rielle Hunter on Friday, it was news and the media covered it. Most mainstream organizations, except for papers in North Carolina, had stayed away from the story, despite the National Enquirer's reports. You could ask why did no one "seem to care" about the Edwards story until Friday, which is fair question and one that goes to the always-difficult decisions about the personal lives of politicians.

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Arlington, Va.: A couple of months ago the New York Times ran a front-page, uncorroborated story of Sen. McCain's alleged relationship with a lobbyist a decade ago; The Post and other media outlets picked up on this story. Why the reluctance to write about Edwards -- when there was much more proof available -- compared to the eagerness to print anonymous sources with no substantiation concerning McCain?

Dan Balz: If you recall, the Post wrote about the lobbyist and McCain but did not highlight the angle that was prominent in the New York Times story. And as you also may recall, the Times was criticized, even by its own ombudsman, for raising the issue of a personal relationship. So I'd take issue with your suggestion that there was eagerness to write about McCain but not about Edwards.

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Washington: Good Morning Dan. What appears to be the fallout from the Edwards admission? And do you think if Edwards were not in the race at the Iowa Caucuses, that Hillary Clinton would have won the primary?

Dan Balz: Howard Wolfson, who was Senator Clinton's communications director, has already said that, if the news of the Edwards affair had been known earlier, Clinton would have defeated Obama in Iowa. Maybe he's right, but there's certainly no way to prove or disprove it. Edwards and Obama were competing for many of the same voters in Iowa, including people who had decided they were not likely to support Clinton. I would not venture to say who would have won Iowa without Edwards in the mix because the dynamic would have been so different without him. Certainly he complicated things for Clinton, but she had many problems in Iowa that had nothing to do with what people thought of Edwards.

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Carlsbad, Calif.: Mr. Balz, thank you for taking this question. If John Edwards had at this point a majority of delegates won in statewide elections, if the party wanted to switch to another candidate given his new admission, would party rules allow for that? And, just as a hypothetical, what would be the situation in the two conventions if, for any unforeseeable reason, either of the two candidates became unavailable to be nominated (health, for instance)?

Dan Balz: If Edwards had the majority of delegates at this point, the convention would be free to reject him and select another nominee. Although we often talk about "pledged" and "unpledged" delegates, the truth is that even pledged delegates are free to vote for whomever they wish at the convention. So until the convention votes, there is no nominee. The question is, who would the convention pick if delegates had to make the choice under these circumstances.

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Fear and Loathing: Dr. Balz, thanks very much for taking our questions today. Your history and experience as a campaign reporter is unparalleled, hence the following questions. What (gonzo?) journalist on the campaign trail today most embodies the principles (?) and vision of our late great friend Hunter S. Thompson? What do you think he would think of the state of the presidential campaign these days? Thanks very much for your unique perspective.

Dan Balz: This is a great question and so I throw it out to others to nominate their candidates. Is there a gonzo journalist on the trail this year and if so, who is it?

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McCain's comment today: Dan: I thought McCain's comments today on Russia and Georgia were generally logical and well-considered, but in opening his comments by saying that "Americans wishing to spend August vacationing with their families or watching the Olympics may wonder why their newspapers and television screens are filled with images of war in the small country of Georgia," he's taking a direct cheap shot at Obama's Hawaiian vacation. I believe this is uncalled for in this circumstance. Your thoughts, please?

Dan Balz: I would disagree with you on this. I don't think it was a shot at Obama but a recognition that many Americans are on vacation now.

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Stewartstown, Pa.: Why is it a legitimate news story if politicians have affairs? A person's right to privacy is very important. To legitimately invade that privacy, someone must have a compelling reason for doing so. The available evidence (examination of the lives and careers of past politicians) suggest there is no relationship between fidelity and being a good leader, and just because many voters seem to think there is such a relationship doesn't change the fact that the evidence suggests otherwise. If there really is a "dilemma" concerning reporting the personal lives of politicians, why wasn't there a dilemma in JFK's and Lyndon Johnson's time?

Dan Balz: Well, standards have changed. What was par for the course during the JFK and LBJ era is no longer possible. Every news organization has its own standards, but what been clear for some years now is that, one way or another, information like this makes its way into the public domain -- through a supermarket tabloid, through blogs or other Internet sources or sometimes in the mainstream media. That begs the question of legitimacy, but different organizations -- and different journalists within news organizations -- have different standards for answering that question.

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My vote for Gonzo: Matt Taibbi: Matt Taibbi at Rolling Stone is one of the best young journalists covering the elections. Just had to put that out there. Really, really excellent!

Dan Balz: Thanks. Any others out there?

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Washington: On one of the various morning shows (I can't remember which one I was watching!) someone said that Howard Wolfson believes that, had the Edwards affair become public earlier, Clinton would have won the nomination. Huh-wah? What could his line of thinking be?

Dan Balz: I want to return to this one. My colleague Jon Cohen, who directs our polling unit, has done some numbers crunching this morning and says Wolfson's assertion is not correct. Far more caucus attendees who supported Edwards said Obama was their second choice than who said Clinton was their second choice. So on that basis, it looks as if Obama still would have won. As I said earlier, depending on when the news of the affair had become public, the dynamic of the Iowa campaign could have changed.

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Southwest Nebraska: McCain gave a press conference this morning on the Georgian-Russian conflict. He sure sounded presidential. Has he usurped Bush's role in the party?

Dan Balz: He's not usurped the president's role as president but certainly with Bush in lame duck status, both McCain and Obama attract attention that might normally go to the president. Obama got some of that attention when he was on his overseas trip a few weeks ago and McCain is seeking some of that attention right now. But neither confuses his role with that of Bush's.

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You dodged Bow, N.H.: So let me try another way. You say Edwards affair was news because it was just discovered, and I guess leave it to us to imply McCain's affair is old news and therefore not worthy of the same coverage. Except, perhaps it's old news to you, but I'd lay you money the vast majority of Americans don't know Sen. McCain cheated on his old wife with his current wife. And -- no small detail -- Sen Edwards is not the nominee of his party, and Sen. McCain is. So isn't it actually more"newsworthy"?

Dan Balz: I think you and I disagree on the definition of "news," which to me has generally had a heavy dose of something being new information or information that wasn't previously confirmed. A decades-old episode that has been previously reported does not have the same news value as a prominent politician going on national television to admit he had lied about a sexual relationship. So I don't believe news organizations should treat them as such. The fact that John Edwards is not his party's nominee is relevant and, I suspect, one reason why most mainstream news organizations stayed away from the story as long as they did.

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Baltimore: The Secret Service wouldn't allow a young Hunter S. Thompson within five miles of a presidential candidate these days. Thompson was a product of his times, and sadly the world will not see his like again.

Dan Balz: You may be right.

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New York: As already has been pointed out by far worthier observers than I, making the election about Obama is the only way Obama loses. If it's about Bush? Obama wins. If it's Obama vs McCain? Obama wins. If it's about some more vague "are you better off than you were four years ago"? Obama wins. Ah, but what if it's a referendum about Obama? Can Team McCain/GOP build enough doubts and worries about Obama? You bet. I think that's where all of those McCain ads want to go. What do you think, Dan?

Dan Balz: I agree that the more the election is about questions about Obama the more difficult the race is for him. What the McCain campaign is doing now is understandable, but eventually McCain will also have to demonstrate that he is his own vision.

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Long Island, N.Y.: When is the President due to leave Beijing? When he leaves, is he coming back to Washington, or is it off to Crawford?

Dan Balz: President Bush is on his way back to the United States and, I believe, heading toward Washington. He clearly enjoyed himself in Beijing, didn't he?

That's all for today. Thanks to everyone and sorry, as always, that we had to leave questions in the queue. Have a great week.

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washingtonpost.com: Discussion: Why Politicians Cheat (washingtonpost.com, Live NOW)

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washingtonpost.com: Upcoming Discussion: Registering Felons to Vote (washingtonpost.com, 1 p.m. ET today)

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