John Edwards mistress and new age nut Rielle Hunter had her humble beginnings under a different name: Lisa Druck. Growing up in Ocala, Florida (I've been there: grass, trees, Spanish moss, springs, that's it), her favorite pastime was riding show horses. But a tragedy befell her horse, and Druck eventually ended up as a drugged-out party girl in New York. Could this dark incident involving family, crime, and equine assassination have been the thing that eventually drove Rielle Hunter into the eager arms of John Edwards? If you're a new-age theorist like Hunter, the answer is a resounding "Yes!":

Hunter's father, James D. Druck, a successful Ocala lawyer representing insurance companies during the 1980s, was implicated in a scam that involved a local man, Tommy "The Sandman" Burns, who electrocuted horses for their owners to collect the insurance money. One of Burns' first victims was the show horse Lisa Druck rode, Henry the Hawk.

That's right: Rielle Hunter's own father hired a man to electrocute his own daughter's horse "using a stripped extension cord and a wall socket." The horse killer eventually went to jail, but Hunter herself was doubtless haunted with lifelong dreams of her noble steed, Henry the Hawk, meeting his death at the hands of a live wire. So what effect might long-term dreaming about horses have on a woman's personality? Let's consult a new-age dream symbolism guide for the answer!

HORSES : Horses have for a long time been associated with passion and excitement... Horses then tend to link to the general excitement and the level of risk in our lives. They may also refer to some upcoming event which involves excitement and risk. KEY WORDS : Exciting, passionate, exhilarating, reckless, unpredictable

And there you have it. Without a scam to bilk horse insurance companies in rural Florida two decades ago, Hillary Clinton would be our next president. [Ocala Star-Banner]