Thank God I'm not the only one that thought the same thing...

This will backfire for Edwards. He will probably get a bump out of this deal..and then will wither and die politically, hopefully for the last time.
Talk about a panderflake.

Where they messed up is in the big fat news conference...everybody expected him to drop out, and he should have, but know there are things that are far too important that only John By Gawd Edwards can do about this countries ills...what a moron.

So he holds up the whole country awaiting his drop out speech (this would have been a great bow out gracefully moment) and he tries to use it to show all of us that there is a white-male liberal besides AlGore that wants to mushroom our ass.

This is a long post. I said goodbye to my favorite sister after battling breast CA for 17 years (yes people have favorite sisters and children) a daughter after something worse, etc.. etc..

He is nothing like Johnie Martin.

Johnie *joined* the Army in 1969, summer of love baby... first stop Vietnam. He liked it so much..he went back. Two tours of baby killing, two decades later (and five years in prison) after
getting his Master's while pushing a broom at the post office.. He threw up in the backyard in Jan. of 96, and was dead in March. Liver CA.
The Army said they had no record of his service.
Then they said, "Ok, he WAS a soldier, but he wasn't in country"
Then they said, "Ok, He WAS in country, and yes he did get two purple hearts..and YES he DID get two bronze friggin stars.." ((and ALL service personel that were in country were exposed-but he refused compensation for Agent Orange)

Johnie quietly went down to the funeral home...alone...and picked out his casket, and paid for it. He sat down with the music director of First Babtist Church of Lakeland Florida and picked out the songs he wanted sang at his funeral. Then he went home and died in his bed with his wife at his side. He made her promise to collect his check from Uncle Sam, since they owed him for a finger.

He was one of the best people I have ever known, and John Edwards is a showboat-ambulance chasing piece of shit.

Thank you! I too am glad I am not the only person who thinks this is not only selfish, but self-serving. While it's true that it's their business what decisions they make for their family, this action tells me everything I personally need to know(not that I had any doubt before!) about John Edwards' character. His wife has been handed a death sentence, and he would rather ride the pathos of that rather than stay home and be with her and their kids. Scum, just purely scum.

I find the response here to be quite callous, and frankly I'm surprised. This is their decision, and no doubt they made it together. No matter what you think of John Edwards, or his wife, this is a calamity for the family, and how they handle that is their affair. It doesn't matter how anyone else handled it, or would handle it.

Just because you don't like Edwards or the decision he and his wife have made, doesn't mean you have to pour scorn on them.

He's running for President. It all matters. It goes to character.

Never had someone's decision fill you with scorn? Of course you have. You'd have had to never opened a newspaper in your life in order to say otherwise. They have kids at home, and the daughter is old enough to be in for a very bad time.

my last patient said to me "Owen, I *just* wanted to take my wife to dinner one more time"

Easter Sunday, 1997 while bleeding to death from a
throat tumor.

God
Family
Country

politics

What is this Donnah ? Is there now ONLY ONE RIGHT WAY to deal with a disease ? What happened to America the land of the free ?

I don't know the people, but if this is their way of dealing with their situation, God bless them.

I cannot imagine the pain this is bringing the Edwards family but I feel like somehow this pursuit of things political is the core of what and who they are. This is what drives them both over all other things and I prefer not to think about which is worse - the cancer that is killing Mrs. Edwards or the mindset so focused on achieving power. Were it not for the knowledge that this will take the life of a wife and mother, I would suggest that this all consuming goal is a cancer itself.

I only hope that Edwards' campaign is quickly put on the shelf in the early primary days and that he has the sense to recognize it.

I want it clear from the outset that I wish no harm to Laura Bush.

If this had happened to Laura Bush before W. had been elected, you guys would all be talking about how bold and selfless this decision had been.

And I can't help but surmise that if Laura had been afflicted while W. is in office, I'm pretty certain you would not be calling for him to step aside to "be with his wife".

Before you guys judge, although I know you can't help yourselves, watch the entire news conference where they explain their decision completely.

I don't have trouble with the idea that Edwards and his wife are due the freedom to deal with her illness however they think fit, or even that they want to pursue the nomination in spite of this recent diagnosis. My problem lies in him holding a press conference to announce her illness having decided to stay in the race. Why did he think this necessary? The possible answers to that question mostly don't reflect to his credit, and I arrive at the character issues I think Donnah has in mind.

Well, it had already leaked (erroneously, it turned out) that Edwards was pulling out of the race due to the reoccurence of the cancer. Might it just be a good thing to address issues up front instead of ignoring them? I would prefer to hear responses straight from the candidates instead of their spin doctors.

Retread, you imply that the press conference was somehow self-serving. I think most people see it for what it was, a public, up-front response to an important event which needed to be addressed. Any other opinion, it seems to me to be self-serving itself.

The people who feel this press conference points to bad character on John Edwards' part have previously made up their minds on their opinions of his character and are using this to try and prove their point.

Perhaps it is a good judge of character to not comment negatively when something like this happens to a family. I cannot think of many other times when we should all just shut up and think of other things to argue about.

Rove- Are you kidding me? If this was ANYBODY doing this I'd think it stinks. It's about misplaced priorities and putting your ambition ahead of anything else.
Hell, if he were in the military they'd be giving him compassionate leave for this.

We don't have to NOT talk about it. This is a man campaigning for president, for crying out loud.

Bad comparison. Having a wife diagnosed with cancer while in office is much, much different than finding out at the time one is deciding to run. This isn't Edwards' first rodeo; he knows the hours and miles away from home. How can he even think of mingling with strangers while his wife is coping with treatments and other emotional issues about herself and the welfare of her children?
How will the BBQ taste in his mouth when his wife is at home making a video to leave her children?
At 36, my favorite cousin, and friend, had breast cancer that went to her bones. It's not a pretty sight. OH, no.
She referred to the Hospis lady as The Hands of Christ. While I was helping turn her over one day she whispered, "These are the Hands of Christ, Nancy"
and I had to respond, "Make haste, Lord Jesus"
If Edwards did make President, he would never sleep a night with a quiet conscience ever again.
He could get every womans vote in the USA next time, if he stood by his family this time.

It is hard for me to empathize, I have like so many other had my own family's ill's to mourn.
If I were relegated by some scrutiny scale forced on me by some position of duty, like a judge or a therapist occupation...I guess I would feel pity.

During the rather long and well thought out speech
concerning the carcinoma residing in the marrow of his wife's rib (incidently this is one of the body's
highest blood cell producing regions) all I thought about was the millions of folks who got similar news the same day...

I was involved with Lawton Chiles care once, and a country singer, and Dusty Rhodes cousin..lol.
They reacted differently, in my opinion..they wanted more privacy.

Everyone including Edwards knows he'll never get nominated for anything. Those idiots who are sending him cash may as well be throwing it away.
So out of prudence, he would be well served to
create memories other than reaching his ambitions during this relapse of his wife's.
It may be all he has to recall one day, of his relationship to her.

Time is a precious thing.

Hey Rove,

That's a pretty clever "moniker" you've got there.

I have no intention of understanding your arguments. All I have to offer is personal insults.

Edwards is a souless ambulance chaser, a fop who is more concerned with his appearance and ambitions than his family and as such I wouldn't vote for the SOB if he was the only choice.

fuckin-a...

on the list of weird things the world might bestow on someone..like the swat team kicking your door down and they all have biological safety gear on...

Foxnews setting up shop on your front door.

and being the guy who insists on drawing attention to himself while his wife announces her incurable disease.. I mean, during the conference..he interrupted her a couple times..you don't do that when your wife is talking about her cancer. Some people actually live long enough to figure out this is no dress rehearsal.

This is one of those deals where for a few feel good moments-his troops, and the media will kid glove the situation, and in a few months they will hack at this like a rat in a butcher shop. Bet that.

It is a characteristic of the liberals.

They *cannot* actually achieve anything, because of the diversity of the causes they are represented by..there's probably an easier, less pc way of saying it but using terms like 'They eat their young' and 'biting the hand that feeds' aren't as cool as liblatin.

I feel sorry for the Edward's in that sense, also.

For all the yahoos who said we don't have a right to question this decision:

"Democratic presidential contender John Edwards and his cancer-stricken wife Elizabeth defended their decision to continue his White House bid Sunday, but the former senator said voters' questions about the decision to keep running are legitimate.

'I think every single candidate for President, Republican and Democratic have lives, personal lives, that indicate something about what kind of human being they are. And I think it is a fair evaluation for America to engage in, to look at what kind of human beings each of us are, and what kind of president we'd make,' Edwards, the party's 2004 vice-presidential nominee, told CBS' '60 Minutes'."

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/03/25/edwards.campaign/index.html

Yahoo? I never questioned your right to make a big deal out of this, I merely questioned the necessity. I thought you would have taken the high road, but I guess I was wrong.

Oh, don't be so disingenuous. Your quote's sitting right up there: how they handle it is "their affair" and we shouldn't be criticizing it.

I write about what I want to write about, and that includes dads who have more important things to do than stay with the kids when their mama is being treated for cancer.

I am a POS.

Damn dude.. Rove Hitler whoever you are (speaking of hiding behind something) I KNOW youre not talkin about my fat ass, cuz it only weighs 170 lbs soakin wet.

Here..Nextel this guy 158*11*8904 his name is Bart. Ask him why Bird dog is on vacation...then get back to me about the sittin on your ass part.

I didn't, nor do I make up a damn bit of what I posted, nor am I dreamin.

Fuck John Edwards, parading his wife's cancer around like he's in court. He's a fake, that's my opinion. If you think he's all super sincere and it doesn't matter what they do because the family is down with the sickness, that's fine.

I guess it pisses me off because before my daughter died, my ex-wife used her in every imaginable way to benefit herself.

I contacted the Make-A-Wish foundation because my little girl was terminal. The thing that I suggested for a wish, was to meet Barney in person..since she loved Barney. We (Grandma-Aunts) agreed.

My wife was the 'custodial' parent, meaning when *she* became uncomfortable with the marriage, (and she could receive more government benefits) *she* got custody...so her idea of a MakeAWish was
a friggin trip back to her hometown in California, right at the same time as her high school reunion.

I should have known better than to marry a valley girl.

Now how bout them apples.

She told them my daughter wanted to go to Disneyland (Jasmyne couldn't articualte very well) ..in California.

We all live about 20 clicks from Mickey, here.

Rove Hitler,

There are so many people suffering out the ass, with the money they could use for treatment going to global warming research, and they will die in obscurity-while twinkle tooth galavants about with his cancer wife.

Isn't this preying upon common people's gutteral
instincts ?

You're falling for the oldest trick in the book...my ex-wife would love you.

Damn csason, I was going to tell old Rove Hitler that I got his post, shoved it in my pants and then took it home and shredded it but after your post, I'll just sit back and listen to the crickets.

I'm a poop sniffer.