And yeah, I think most people are like, "If he had just come out in the beginning and said, "Yeah I meant to sext this one girl but I goofed and put in on Twitter instead. My bad." then people would have snickered for a few days, and that would have been that, mostly.
Bingo. It would've been something that was mostly just silly/embarrassing until he decided to create a fake hacking story. But he made up a lie, and I'm wondering wtf did he do it for if he's going to just come out soon after.
I don't think he ever intended to admit it to begin with but when his initial story didn't hold water and this story grew legs (or other anatomy), he either panicked or his PR people took him aside and said, "Look, you gotta put an end to this. If you did it, fess up."
Edwards did the same thing. He denied the whole thing, then he admitted having an affair but said the kid wasn't his, then he finally had to admit that yeah, the kid's his. But he never did anything illegal or tried to cover it up! Except....y'know, for the rerouting campaign funds to hide her away and then covering the rerouting of the money.
I think there's a damage control mentality that says, "Okay, if I admit to the least bad part of it, maybe they'll all accept that and go away and quit asking questions." But when you're a politician, that never works. Because there are always going to be people who will profit enough from digging out your dirt that they will devote full time and energy to poking holes in your story.