Last night the floppy-haired philanderer made his first public appearance since being driven underground by that unfortunate business with the illegitimate child and the shadowy coverup and whatnot. He was at Indiana University, picking up sorority chicks giving a speech that…

…covered politics, poverty and his hopes for America and the world and he later discussed President-elect Obama and other topics from the audience.

But the half-hour question-and-answer period featured only written queries that had been submitted before his speech — and the affair he has acknowledged with filmmaker Rielle Hunter didn’t surface.

After his public statements in August, Edwards said he did not plan to speak about the affair again.

Sophomore Mariela Colindres told the Indiana Daily Student she thought Edwards was right not to address the affair during the speech.

“Nothing he could have said to make it better, plus it’s a personal issue,” she said.

Graduate student Kortnee Warner agreed.

“I heard about some of those issues,” Warner told the student newspaper. “It happens more than you realize it. I didn’t make any character judgments.”

Did you get that, John? Somebody named Kortnee was all like, “Adultery? Whatever.” No word yet from other luminaries like Cynndee, Stayceee, and AshleeEee.

But here’s the capper:

In response to questions from the audience, Edwards praised Hillary Rodham Clinton’s leadership and said his favorite superhero is Superman.

Well, the “justice and the American way” part, maybe. Hold the “truth.”

I’ve kind of lost track of Rielle these days. She’s still got her meal ticket, presumably, or we would have heard from her by now.