But in the court of public opinion, he’s already serving time.

He still faces a possible retrial but at some point, Edwards will have to rebuild his shattered reputation. Weeks of testimony brought back into the spotlight sordid details of Edwards’s affair with Rielle Hunter and his broken relationship with his late wife, Elizabeth.

( PHOTOS: John Edwards’ life and career)

POLITICO spoke with political consultants, legal experts, religious leaders, media gurus, crisis managers and branding mavens to get their take on how the former Democratic presidential candidate can rehab his reputation and build a new life. It won’t be easy, but here’s what they recommend:

1. Paging Oprah

Picture this: Edwards, with tears in his eyes, sits across from a trusted TV interviewer as he pours out his heart about his personal life and career — and begs for forgiveness from the public.

And the tears are non-negotiable, said Patsy Cisneros, owner of Los Angeles-based image consulting company Political Icon.

“He should show extreme regret,” Cisneros told POLITICO. “There should be some crying here and there. Literally, tearing up, especially when it comes to Elizabeth. Any reference to Elizabeth, he should cry.”

In a way, Edwards started this process shortly after the judge announced the mistrial, stepping before the cameras outside the courthouse. “While I do not believe I did anything illegal … I did an awful, awful lot that was wrong,” Edwards said. “If I want to find the person who’s responsible for my sins, I don’t have to go any further than the mirror. It’s me and me alone.”

( See also: Who is Rielle Hunter?)

If he goes the sit-down route, it’s important for Edwards to choose interviewers who will push him to share his entire story but who won’t use the encounter to berate him, Cisneros said.

“Everyone knows that a lot of people like [ABC’s] Robin Roberts – she interviews, but she doesn’t get harsh or sound judgmental. She never sounds judgmental. So I’d start with her. Then Ann Curry, a Dateline type of thing, or Diane Sawyer, 20/20,” she said.

In front of the cameras, it’s all about “looking sincere,” Cisneros added — and keeping former mistress Hunter far, far away from the set. Cisneros said, however, that if she were advising him, his daughter with Hunter should be at one of the interviews. Since Edwards repeatedly denied paternity, Cisneros also suggested that showcasing his relationship with his daughter – as Edwards began to do outside the courthouse, mentioning Quinn by name and calling her “precious” — could help soften the current feeling the public has of him as a cruel, unfeeling parent.

( PHOTOS: The John Edwards trial)

And that emphasis on demonstrating sincere remorse is absolutely critical for Edwards if he decides to open up to the media, says Jack Abramoff, the disgraced ex-lobbyist who served time in prison for corruption.

“It may never be appropriate for him to re-engage in the public discourse, but if that time comes, he has to be sincerely humble and profoundly honest about those things he did which were wrong — not necessarily illegal, but wrong,” he said. “America does not distinguish between those two standards, and he needs to realize this. Humility is the most important attribute for him to acquire.”

Harlan Loeb, a crisis management expert at Edelman’s Crisis & Issues Management practice, said if Edwards can show a true sense of remorse and honestly discuss all of the mistakes he’s made, that could possibly offer the disgraced politician a form of redemption.

“There needs to be some soul-searching that manifests itself in some public format,” Loeb said. “… Some exposé in which he openly confronts what it is, almost like an Oprah-esque tell-all.”

But Abramoff warns, “As for the media, they are not stupid and cannot be used by anyone. Like the American public, they can tell when someone is sincere and when they are trying to game the system. The worst thing he could do is jump back into the fray only to be accused of trying to climb back to the prestige of the past.”

2. Advocate for a cause

Some experts suggested that Edwards put his expertise to good use by offering his services at educational institutions that would benefit from his experience as a trial lawyer, while others recommend that he focus on combating poverty, which was one of the central pillars of his political platform.

Edwards suggested that he intended to do just that, saying in his remarks outside the courthouse: “I don’t think God’s through with me. I really believe he thinks there is still some good things I can do, and whatever happens with this legal stuff going forward, what I’m hopeful about is all those kids that I’ve seen, you know, in the poorest parts of this country and in some of the poorest places in the world, that I can help them in whatever way I’m still capable of helping them,” Edwards said.

But Gary Pearce, a North Carolina political consultant who worked on Edwards’s Senate campaign in 1998, warned that even anti-poverty work may now be off-limits for the ex-senator.

“He did the poverty thing, but now that looks like a way to get Bunny Mellon’s money. So that rings phony,” Pearce said. “He would have to do something that he really did believe in because people are going to always suspect he’s a phony. And any whiff of phoniness they ever get about him, they’ll say, well, ‘I knew he was a phony.’”

Helping in the quest to find a cure for breast cancer — the disease that took Elizabeth Edwards’s life — also could be Edwards’s path back into the good graces of the American people, several of the experts said.

“You come out and you do the Jimmy Swaggart thing. You say, ‘I’ve done wrong, I’m a sinner, we’re all sinners, and I realize the error of my ways and I realize I didn’t treat my wife very well, didn’t treat my kids very well, this was a terrible mistake I made. I know there’s no way for my wife to forgive me, but what I really want to do in her memory is help eradicate breast cancer,’” said Bill Hillsman, a media consultant whose firm North Wood Advertising specializes in underdog campaigns.

While he cautioned about the possibility of serious backfire from those who may question Edwards’s motives – even if they happen to be genuinely heartfelt — Hillsman noted, “You’re talking about North Carolina, a state that’s sort of Bible belt, and if people are in a mood to forgive him, then it could work.”

Bruce Haynes, a founding partner of Purple Strategies who advised BP after the oil spill, said Edwards will need to do some serious soul-searching to find a cause worth fighting for.

“His biggest problem is that he’s never been committed to a cause other than the cause itself and he needs to demonstrate that he can commit himself to something that is selfless,” he said. “He still can redeem his humanity … by demonstrating that he can be a giver, not just a taker.”

3. Go pro bono

In January 1997, John Edwards delivered one of the most passionate closing arguments of his legal career, invoking his dead son in his defense of a little girl who was disemboweled by the suction of an uncovered swimming pool drain.

Valerie Lakey, who was 5 years old when she suffered the horrific accident in 1993, won the case against the manufacturers of the drain. The $25 million settlement secured by Edwards was the biggest verdict in North Carolina history.

Despite the grave personal mistakes Edwards made, some in the legal world still remember the skill and gusto with which Edwards fought for his clients in the courtroom during his days as a personal injury lawyer, representing plaintiffs in medical malpractice suits and cases against big corporations.

While it may be impossible for Edwards to ever regain his credibility and stand in front of a jury, some hope that Edwards, a graduate of the University of North Carolina law school, will some day again put his legal talents to good use.

“I used to have great admiration for him as a plaintiff’s attorney, helping those who were injured. Typical people — not the rich and the powerful, but people who might not have been able to get that kind of help,” celebrity attorney Gloria Allred said. “He fought the David and Goliath types of battles — the typical person against the big corporation. That’s a very, very difficult task. Huge. Herculean.”

Allred, who emphasized that she is disappointed and angry at Edwards, said she wants to see the disgraced former senator find it in his heart use his legal background to give back to those who can most benefit from his help. “He can get out there and do good work,” she said. “He has a record of trying to have an impact on poverty in this country.”

Ari Fleischer, a former George W. Bush press secretary and founder of Ari Fleischer Sports Communications who advised Tiger Woods after details of infidelity shattered the golf great’s public image, said the next stage of Edwards’s life should be “quiet and dignified.” Offering legal services to the poor could be just the ticket, he agreed.

“I think he could likely carve out a path doing something where his legal services are given pro bono [to] people with needs,” Fleischer said, before quickly adding, “But I don’t know if that fits his personality. He’s not that type of person.”

4. Of thee I sing

Edwards just might be able to belt his blues away.

Leaders of the United Methodist Church, of which Edwards is a member, say they are hopeful that the disgraced former senator will repent and seek forgiveness from God. And one of the most effective ways for him to do that, they say, is to join the church choir.

“It might sound strange, and maybe John Edwards has a beautiful voice and maybe not, but even if he sings like a frog, it might be that where he needs to be is in his church choir,” said Amy Laura Hall, an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church and a professor of Christian Ethics at Duke University.

The act of singing the Scripture is a powerfully healing Methodist tradition that can help lift individuals out of truly dark places — in a way that solitary prayer may not be able to, leaders of the church explain. There are plenty of United Methodist hymns that speak to the topic of forgiveness, including, “Just as I Am,” “Amazing Grace” and “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling.”

And no need to worry if singing is not Edwards’s forte, said Robert Hill, another ordained elder of the church and dean of Boston University’s Marsh Chapel. According to Hill, instructions on best ways to sing the hymns, written by Methodist founder John Wesley, can be found inside hymnals.

“When Methodism began, there were some bad singers, so he taught them how to sing,” he said. “And when they couldn’t sing, he told them to be careful and quiet. If you sing off key, then sing softly.”

Edwards is a member of the Edenton Street United Methodist Church in Raleigh, N.C., although a spokesman at the church told POLITICO that he has not actively attended services for some time. Hall and Hill both emphasized that United Methodists believe in a pardoning God, and that even if Edwards has distanced himself from the church in recent years, it’s not too late to begin praying for forgiveness.

“It’s obvious he cannot reconcile with his ex-wife in this life because she’s already passed,” Hall said. “So part of the process for Edwards would be praying that eventually he would be forgiven by her.”

5. The Chuck Colson model

Could the Watergate scandal and its aftermath provide inspiration to Edwards?

If he looks to Chuck Colson — President Richard Nixon’s former special counsel — for guidance, Edwards could find a fulfilling place in public life.

Colson pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and served seven months in prison, becoming a born-again Christian. Once he was released, Colson founded Prison Fellowship, an organization dedicated to getting local churches and volunteers involved in counseling inmates.

Much like Colson, who died in April at the age of 80, turned his life around and others with it, Edwards could use his own tumultuous personal story to focus on helping fellow wayward politicians.

“Maybe he could start a Chuck Colson thing,” said Pearce, a consultant who worked on Edwards’s Senate campaign. “Instead of counseling convicts, he could counsel politicians. ‘Don’t be like me, learn from my mistakes.’ There’s probably no group in society that needs counseling more than politicians.”

But advising pols definitely doesn’t mean Edwards should be offering political tips, consultants were quick to add.

“If he can emerge at some point in some sort of humble way — there’s a possibility 10 years down the road he might have sage advice,” said North Carolina Democratic political consultant Thomas Mills.

And Hillsman, the media consultant , whose firm North Wood Advertising specializes in underdog campaigns, suggested Edwards could further mirror Colson by taking his counsel to those on the inside.

“It’s better to just … say, ‘You know what, I’m going to work with prisoners who have been unjustly imprisoned to devote my legal skills to people who have been wrongly convicted. Or I’m going to, because I’ve been in the justice system for so many years before I went into politics, I’ve found God and I’m going to preach the ministry in prison,’ or something like that,” Hillsman said.

6. Do your penance

Go directly to jail. Do not pass go, do not collect $200.

Strangely enough, the popular board game Monopoly offers Edwards a piece of stark, but worthwhile advice if he wants to find redemption in the public eye. Without serving prison time for his misdeeds — or at least doing some kind of public penance — Edwards will never have a shot at inching his way back into people’s good graces, several consultants said.

A stint in prison, even over campaign finance law, could help Americans believe Edwards had finally paid for his egregious personal sins.

“If he is sentenced to something, the American people believe that after you’ve served your sentence, you deserve a chance to work and earn a living,” Fleischer said.

Loeb, who called Edwards’s actions “moral terrorism,” agreed. “We as a society like to tear down our heroes and then redeem them,” he noted.

And there are always other ways for Edwards to publicly show he’s suffered, even if it doesn’t come down to time in the Big House. Patty Briguglio, CEO of North Carolina’s MMI Public Relations, joked that “it would take him 10 years of having to wear a hairshirt for anyone to ever trust him.”

Through publicly suffering Edwards could show something many people feel he hasn’t been able to thus far: genuine contrition.

“I don’t think anybody feels like he’s taken a long hard look at himself and taken responsibility for what’s happened,” Mills said. “That’s the problem.”

7. Just go away. Forever

But maybe John Edwards is a lost cause.

Even some of the experts who offered suggestions for ways that Edwards can rehabilitate his image expressed doubts about whether that was possible.

Bruce Haynes: “He’s as irreparable as I can recall.”

Patti Briguglio: “He’s doomed. … Stick a fork in him, he’s done. I’ve been doing crisis PR for 18 years and he is not coming back.”

Ari Fleischer: “I wouldn’t even [advise him.] It grosses me out … In the public arena, John Edwards has asked for people’s trust, he asked for people’s faith. … He was a fraud.”

And Democratic consultant Chris Lehane perhaps put it the best out of anyone when he said: “He’s at the epicenter of Dante’s circles of hell. There are some people who are just in such a deep, dark, dank un-spinnable place that their ability to climb out of it even with a long-term strategy, it may not be doable.”