Posted on 07/07/2004 11:30:52 PM PDT by Jenya
Edwards on the spot over handling of tragedy
Here's two awkward subjects political America and very likely Kerry-Edwards strategists are buzzing about, privately.
No. 1: The klieg light contrast between Opie-Grown-Up John Edwards [related, bio] and his smart, endearing wife (``My husband looks 35,'' Elizabeth, 54, has said. ``And there's nobody in the world who hates that more than I do.'')
The whispered taboo? Mrs. Edwards' weight.
No. 2: In presidential strategists' offices: How the worst tragedy - losing a child - can be turned, delicately, subtly, to national political advantage. John and Elizabeth Edwards buried son Wade at 16.
``I will never, ever trade on her memory to gain sympathy or to show that I've suffered. So help me God.'' So said George Bush the elder in 1980 about publicly discussing the cancer death of his daughter, Robin, at almost 4.
``I'm just not going to go into it,'' Bush Sr. said over and over when reporters asked about his loss.
Whether he ever did ``trade'' is debatable. But during his own 1988 presidential run, candidate Bush spoke publicly many times about Robin, most memorably during a Tom Brokaw interview.
``While interviewing consultants for the Senate race, Edwards said Wade's death was off-limits,'' one hometown paper reported last year. ``He pretty much told every consultant,'' said one family friend, ``that if you so much as write one word about my son or in any way use him for political purposes, you will be fired at that moment, and, to the extent that I can, I will sue you.''
Yet America during the primaries and again this week has read many words about Wade Edwards. And most details came from Edwards and his wife.
Is this a horrible thing?
Not if it's sincere.
Yet there's an uneasy line between remembering a dead child or family member when asked at a forum, for example, on health care or teen safety. It's something else when the story is repeated over and over on the stump or detailed on the convention podium.
In 1992, Al Gore not only told and retold how his 6-year-old son was hit by a car (he fully recovered) but also his sister's agonizing death from lung cancer (which lost its luster after stories emphasized Gore's support for tobacco subsidies).
``Somehow Gore was perceived as using this in a way people didn't like,'' says Democratic strategist and Bloomberg radio host Michael Goldman. ``You can never look as though you're taking advantage (of tragedy) but in fact it's a great way to answer one of the fundamental questions voters have about candidates: Can they understand problems of people like me?''
``This goes to the heartstrings of America,'' says public relations expert George Regan. ``To be able to talk to a bereavement group and say, `I know how you feel.' ''
``I know what it feels like when crime touches my family.'' So said Michael Dukakis, not exactly Mr. Emotive, in a TV commercial for his 1982 gubernatorial campaign. He then talked about the robbery of his father and his brother's hit-and-run death.
``There can't be crass exploitation,'' said another strategist.
But this is, after all, Oprah's America.
``We're in a different age than we used to be.'' This is how Bush the elder explained to Brokaw his decision to talk about his little girl. When she died in 1953, Barbara Bush wrote in her own book, family members didn't even talk about fully it to each other. To reporters? Unimaginable.
In fact, their pediatrican's secretive advice then, by today's standards, seems almost cruel. As Barbara Bush wrote: ``to tell no one'' about Robin's leukemia, ``but to go home, forget that Robin was sick, make her as comfortable as we could, love her - and let her gently slip away.''
" No. 1: The klieg light contrast between Opie-Grown-Up John Edwards [related, bio] and his smart, endearing wife (``My husband looks 35,'' Elizabeth, 54, has said. ``And there's nobody in the world who hates that more than I do.'')
The whispered taboo? Mrs. Edwards' weight."
Perhaps the Clinton years have warped my perceptions and I am bing too cynical but....
After seeing the oblivious disparity between the two, Is it too crass to ponder if the handsome, youthful Edwards has a few "bimbo eruptions" in his closet?
A little biographical information, from Googling "Senator John Edwards Biography".
Apparently, Elizabeth Edwards is a little older than John (she was born July 3, 1949), and their oldest son, Wade, died in 1996. There is a daughter, Catharine, a student at Princeton University; five-year-old Emma Claire, and a three-year-old son, Jack. Wade would have been about 16 when he died.
I am vaguely suspicious when the woman is older than her husband, that there is a subservient relationship with "Mom". Elizabeth is older than John Edwards, and Teresa is older than John Kerry. By about five years, in each case.
Note to self: Stop analyzing on things of no importance.
That's the same kind of thing that people said about George H. Bush and his wife, Barbara. Actually, people said that the white-haired Barbara looked more like his mother than his wife, and it should be noted that Barbara Bush Sr. had six children and lost one early on due to cancer.
Mrs. Edwards had two children when her 16 year old son was killed in a car accident in 1996. It's amazing to me but she and her husband decided to have more children and at age 48 she had another daughter, and at age 50 she had another son. All this may have caused the disparity in the attractiveness between her husband and her because he didn't carry those two "late in life" babies.
I read an article earlier that it was the loss of Wade which turned Edwards into politics.
Interesting. Doesn't he WANT to spend much time with his two very young children? I would think you'd hold on tighter than ever after losing one.
this stuff is all too ghoulish
barbara bush's appearance was much more grandmotherly than might've suited bush '41 at times
how people communicate about their loss is up to them
it's enough that edwards is a commie parasite
Ah nuts...when Barbara and George were young she was a good looking young lady and George knew a good thing when he ran into her...Some folks just age differntly
Interesting that she was able to have 2 children in her late 40s. Only 10% of women are able to conceive after age 40.
When celebrity women conceive late in their 40s, frequently it is with a younger woman's ovum.
I've already read that they used fertility drugs to conceive.
As to her weight, it could be health related. Remember Barbara Bush had Graves disease.
As to whoever mentioned her being older than he is....hold on a minute....I'm 4 years older than my husband and have had a wonderful marriage for 25 years.
IMHO, the wives, nor the deceased kids are the issue. My sister lost a child many years ago, and we speak of him quite often. It would be denying part of yourself if one never spoke of a deceased child. Now to try to use it for political gain is another thing, but I think it may be a little too early to make a judgment on that issue.
The "Johns" are liberals and that's what matters.
"A bimbo in the closet?" My wife's first reaction! The woman is---sorry if I offend anyone here---a cow. There is no way this guy has, shall we say, "remained faithful."
Really? I never knew about Robin so it couldn't have been that many times or the Brokaw interview wasn't as memorable as the BBC thinks. On the other hand, I have heard about Wade.
It depends.....Edwards looks to be on the petite side, I've seen these sort of odd couplings before...small guy, big woman, or big guy, small woman....sometimes it's in the eye of the beholder.
Sharks never get far from water. Once you begin to think like a predator, you will always think like a predator. Question is, how will these predatory instincts manifest in a politician? I would guess in taxes for sure - the American public is one big "class" for him to exTORT.
Although I disagree with Edwards on almost everything politically, I think he seems to be an OK guy; certainly not as mean and nasty as most Dem candidates. I will be disgusted by any so-called conservative or Republican who would make fun of his wife with regard to her weight. Such mean spirited nastiness is the domain of the Dems (remember Linda Tripp) and I think most true conservatives are much to classy to stoop to that level.
I'm sick of people basing everything on looks. No, you're not sorry or you wouldn't have said it in the first place. So what if she's not super model malnourished, I'm sure you wouldn't win Stud Muffin of the Year. As long as your wife can tolerate your looks and the Edwards love each other then it doesn't matter.
Edwards' wife's weight isn't one of them.
OBTW, I'm 4 years younger than my wife, and I assure you I wasn't looking for a "mommy" as was suggested by another poster.
Ooooohhh. That touched a nerve. No, I'm not sorry. She's a cow.
Agree with your political views.
My point was not whether they used "fertility drugs". The eggs (ovum) in women over 40 are aging and have a high incidence of abnormalities. Look at these statistics:
Per year, birth rates resulting from ART (assisted reproductive treatment) procedures using a woman's own eggs are:
32% for women age 34 and younger.
26% for women age 35 to 37.
18% for women age 38 to 40.
10% for women age 41 to 42.
5% for women 43 and older.
Birth rates are affected by whether ART procedures use a woman's own eggs or donor eggs.
Using her own eggs, a woman's chances of having a live birth steadily decline from about 40% in her late 20s, to about 30% at age 37, to about 10% by age 42.
Using donor eggs, a woman's chances of having a live birth do not decline. At age 30 and at age 45, the donor egg birth rate is about 40%.
It is truly amazing that Mrs. Edwards was able to have two kids after the age of 45 -- ESPECIALLY if they are her own eggs. Here are the statistics about the genetic abnormalies in aging eggs:
Beyond the age of 35, each mature egg a woman produces is progressively less likely to be "normal," such that with every advancing year, fertilization of her eggs is more likely to produce embryos with abnormal chromosome number and/or structure. Such abnormal embryos are referred to as being aneuploidic. As an example, at age 35, approximately 1 in 4 embryos are likely to be aneuploidic, while at age 40, aneuploidy affects about 1 in 2 embryos. At age 43, approximately 2 out of 3 embryos are so affected and at age 45, the incidence of aneuploidy could be as high as 5 in 6. Since it is nature's intent to protect the integrity of the species through natural selection, abnormal embryos usually will fail to implant or attach to the uterine lining (in such cases, the woman would probably not even be aware that she was actually pregnant for a very brief period of time), or will be rejected in the first three months of pregnancy as a miscarriage. Infrequently, nature will make a mistake and allow a chromosomally defective fetus to continue on to delivery, resulting in the birth of, e.g., a Down's syndrome baby.
The risk of embryo aneuploidy increases with advancing age. This explains why there is a progressive increase in the incidence of infertility, miscarriage and birth defects that occurs as a woman's age of conception increases beyond 35. It also serves to explain why treatment of infertility, regardless of the chosen method, becomes progressively less successful with advancing maternal age.
Whatever she did, the kids are adorable.
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