Posted on 03/22/2007 12:19:05 PM PDT by bmweezer
I’m not sure what I think about Edwards staying in the race. Like him or not, he and his wife seem like a happy couple and it is clear that her desire is to see her husband become president, regardless of her circumstance. If the two them feel that he can remain a candidate for president while she is taking care of herself, then so be it and on that, we should not judge. However, I guess that I am more concerned about how the announcement was made and for what reason. My personal opinion is that for something like this, John and Elizabeth Edwards should have gone on a talk show (think Larry King, as much as many of us dislike him) and announce in that forum that the cancer had returned but that it would not derail his campaign. How it was announced - with much fanfare (lack of a better word, sorry) and with massive buildup took the form of a campaign rally and that imo is rather disturbing. Throw in an earlier leak that stated that her cancer would cause an end to his campaign (back to that massive buildup thing again), and you have something that doesn’t look as sincere as it should have looked. Such is modern politics, I guess.
Im sorry for Mrs Edwards but the whole things smells of a publicity stunt.
Its tough and obviously not a good thing for their family. Its also hard to see how he's not attempting to use this to further his campaign (I know thats terrible to say).
We conservatives are supposed to be nice and all that. Our opponents are the ones saying the world would be better if our Pres and VP weren't 'there'. If the liberals win they will accept the terrorists with open arms. They will destroy our ability to defend our country.
So I say to heck with being nice, we are fighting for our childrens lives. After all, just do it for the children.
I wonder how hard it is to find a doctor when you've fraudulantly sued hundreds of doctors, using junk science and parlor tricks to sway the jury, and generally causing the decline of OB/GYN services for all women in your home state.
I hope that $100 million is worth the bad karma.
Sometimes it's hard to be the Breck Girl
Getting called the F-word by that Blond
When they show malice, towards your Tar-Heel Palace
There's just one way to face the strife
Hide behind your wife
Show the whole world her illness
they won't think you're phony
when you're the Silky Pony
Hey if it works for Sanjaya.....why not Edwards. Sympathy vote. : )
Might as well get it all done at once.
What do you bet if her cancer really proves to be incurable that he sues the doctors for not having recommended a full mastectomy back in 2004?
ROFL!
Good to see a little humor here.
The news about E. Edwards is not all that bleak. There are new drugs for breast cancer evolving every day. She may yet get to enjoy five to ten more years in her elegant mansion.
No need to worry that E. will be "alone" while Breck Girl is out campaigning. I'm sure that gazillion-dollar mansion will be fitted with all kinds of servants, plus private nurses, nutritionists, fitness coaches; nannies for the kids, tutors, cooks, maids, and gardeners.
Elizabeth Edwards will go out in style.
It's a Stage IV and maybe on her lung.
That sounds pretty bleak to me.
Edwards and his handlers have been watching too much American Idol. They learned how the sympathy vote can keep an underdog in the race, no matter how inadequate that person may be.
As a sister of a breast cancer survivor and the daughter of a pancreatic cancer victim, I pray Mrs. Edwards beats this dreadful cancer. It's a shame that I have to question the motives of her husband when it should be all about her, not him.
In some situations, the only left to do is to laugh.
Sorry for barking at you the other day. :-/
pinz, I love you. All is forgiven.
;)
I wish her well. Her chances aren't great, but some women with this stage cancer do live for years.
I agree. With all her past treatments, etc., shouldn't the cancer be working on her third breast by now?
I smell something fishy.
:-)
My husband had cancer several years ago....we have learned to laugh and count our blessings each day.
We don't know what was said between the two of them. She may have insisted he continue. I won't judge him based on what is known now.
I try to be optimistic, maybe because a dear friend is going through the same thing right now.
Another dear friend lived in good health for 8 years after the mastectomy, and then for 2 more years after the recurrence (a spot found on the lung and another on the liver.)
I'm also mindful of how many FReepers are in the same situation right now, or have a close relative in the situation, and I'm trying to inject some hope into their day.
God bless both of you. You have a good attitude!
Edwards has used his son's death, his wife's cancer,and the 'global warming crisis' to his political advantage. Despicable. On top of that, Michael Fumento (Fumento.com) just wrote a scathing article on his tactics as a trial lawyer that have resulted in much harm to women, babies, rural communities and the state of our health care. If America continues to go for form over substance,we'll probably elect Mr. charming pretty boy. Aargh
I still hope he drops out of the race and I don't think our country needs him or his message even a little.
Maybe Hillary Clinton will now try this and say that Bill gave me herpes.
-PJ
"And if I am ill, that could only be to your advantage." Evita
Heh...but herpes is not usually terminal.
Here's the latest on Eliz Edwards:
The presidential candidate revealed the closely guarded prognosis _ even family friends and some senior campaign staff were unaware _ at a news conference Thursday, his wife by his side in the hotel garden where they held their wedding reception 30 years ago.
Putting to rest speculation about his political future, Edwards told reporters: "The campaign goes on. The campaign goes on strongly."
The recurrence of the cancer _ this time on Elizabeth Edwards' bone _ presents a setback for the couple, both personally and politically. Elizabeth Edwards' illness and treatment is certain to affect her husband's presence in the early voting states and may raise questions about the viability of his campaign, especially with financial backers. The first fundraising deadline is fast approaching on March 31.
But both said the cancer was treatable and that they would stick with their plans to campaign vigorously for the nomination.
"From our perspective, there was no reason to stop," Edwards said. "I don't think we seriously thought about it."
--snip--
Faced with questions about how his wife's illness will affect the campaign, Edwards said he will pursue the presidency, but: "Any time, any place I need to be with Elizabeth I will be there _ period."
Mrs. Edwards, 57, was first diagnosed with cancer in the final weeks of the 2004 campaign. The day after Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry and Edwards, his running mate, conceded the election to George W. Bush, Edwards announced that his wife had invasive ductal cancer, the most common type of breast cancer, and would undergo treatment.
Mrs. Edwards underwent several months of radiation and chemotherapy for the lump in her breast. Her husband's campaign has said she had recovered from the illness.
"I don't look sickly, I don't feel sickly. I am as ready as any person can be for that," she said at the news conference.
John Edwards said a biopsy of her rib had showed that the cancer had returned.
The bone is one of the most common places where breast cancer spreads, and once it does so it is not considered curable.
But how long women survive depends on how widespread the cancer is in the bone, and many can survive for years. The longer it takes for cancer to spread after the initial tumor, the better the prognosis. She was diagnosed in 2004.
Chemotherapy and radiation are standard treatments, along with use of drugs that specifically target the bones called bisphosphonates. Other treatments include hormone therapy if the cancer is responsive to estrogen.
"I will have what will be a less debilitating kind of chemotherapy ... for the rest of my life," Elizabeth Edwards said.
Dr. Lisa Carey, Elizabeth Edwards' physician, said that initial tests showed some very small suspicious spots elsewhere, but that the therapy focus would be on the bone. Asked where else, she said "possibly involving the lung."
--snip--
"We've been confronted with these kind of traumas and struggles already in our life," Edwards said. "When this happens you have a choice _ you can go and cower in the corner or you can go out there and be tough."
Elizabeth Edwards added: "We're always going to look for the silver lining _ it's who we are as people."
John Moylan, a senior adviser who runs Edwards' campaign in South Carolina, said he learned the news by watching it on television.
"This was a very private decision about a very private matter," the attorney from Columbia, S.C., said. "It was the best way to handle it."
--snip--
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a rival for the nomination, said he and his wife offered their prayers, and in a telephone call to The Associated Press, added: "If there is one message here, it should be that we should all redouble our efforts to lick that deadly disease."
Another rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, also said Edwards was in her prayers.
"I admire her optimism and strength in the face of adversity, and I look forward to seeing them both on the campaign trail," Clinton said in a statement.
At the White House, press secretary Tony Snow said "our prayers are with you."
"As somebody who has been through this, Elizabeth Edwards is setting a powerful example for a lot of people _ and good and positive one," said Snow, who had his colon removed in 2005 and underwent six months of chemotherapy after being diagnosed with colon cancer.
(excerpted from AP)
Pony Boy is such a huge fan of nationalized health care.
Let's see him drop her off a a local "not for profit" butcher shop and trust in the goobermint.
Nope.
As you said, he'll use his MILLIONS to help her (and rightly so) but would make it mandatory for the rest of us to wilt under the goobermint's thumb.
Everyone handles shock and trauma differently. And it is often different for the same person from moment to moment.
My daughter's cat died last week and I was silent for hours... because I was devastated? No, because I kept thinking of awful jokes! =:-O And I didn't want to make it worse for her. :-(
We laughed and cried later, together...
But it's never a good call to say how someone else "should" respond to bad news, in my experience. :-)
I dunno. I don't agree with Edwards' politics, but under the circumstances I think he could use a bit of slack.
I wasn't addressing his speech or mannerisms. While I didn't find either convincing, I agree with you, that's not mine to judge. My objection is to her illness being used in such a tawdry way. She said that the election was to important for her bone cancer to hold her husband back. Not a direct quote, but I think that was the gist. Sorry, Republican, Democrat, whatever, I think that was tacky.
If my husband left me for the campaign trail while I had metastatic breast cancer, I would divorce his arse. That way he couldn't use me for the sympathy vote.
I've been wondering that same thing myself!!
I have a feeling she is just as ambitious as he is, but it is a bad move.
He will not get the sympathy vote from this sad circumstance.
However, if he bowed out now because of it, he might get the sympathy vote the next time round.
I agree.
All the maids and mansions in the world don't help much when you are dying of cancer.
That's pretty cold.
But you gotta admit post #11 was probably pretty accurate, as unpretty as the reality of the facts may be.
You've got to admit that it's a lot easier being rich with cancer than being poor with cancer.
One of the reasons so many breast cancers are detected too late is because poor women can't afford a mammogram; and if they can, they're afraid of a positive diagnosis, if they don't have health insurance.
Chemo alone is a couple of thou a month.
And who said EE is dying of cancer? She's not. She's living with cancer...and living in style.
Agreed. Rich is better. Makes life easier in a multitude of ways.
I just meant while all that stuff can make life easier, well, you're still dying.
As are we all.
If its back and back to stay, God I pray for her and him. Its a terrible thing. May God give them both strength and peace.
For a man to put a career ahead of being there for his wife. That is not a man you want to be anywhere near. And what makes it sadder is he doesn't a snowballs chance in hell of gettin the nomniation anyway.
While my prayers certainly go out for EE, this entire announcement approach, seemed to be nothing more than a publicity stunt.
I trust pretty boy about as I can toss my house, and I live in a very large house.
See the obvious thing: It was a publicity stunt.
Whether she is really relapsed or changed in her sickness or not.
Mrs. Edwards' "dire condition" is now a deflector shield and counter-attack to all the parodies about Mr. Edwards.
Were it just an honest announcement it could have been made without trumpets and fanfare.
Every marriage is unique, but still -- the rigors and disturbances of a Presidential Campaign is not the kind of care 99.99999997% of cancer patients will do anything but get worse on. Edwards digs a quicker grave for his children's mother with this ridiculous and mean decision. He is now paired with Micheal Schiavo for entry in the Grand Ledger of Martial Compassion. It shows no common sense or good judgment, just deadly bravado.
Marital, that is. Warrior he is not, for a warrior knows which comes first, life or vanity.
I have a friend who's sister has lived with something similar for about 5 years. She knows she most likely won't see 80 but hopes to be around to see some more milestones in her kid's lives. She has seen her oldest graduate college and marry and will become a grandma in May. Her other child will graduate college in May as well.
We agree! The 'announcement' was odious. They looked like two strangers standing two feet apart.
What I get from the Breck Girl is--
" I look like a Kennedy and my wife is gonna croak- vote for me!"
Difference between Bush and the democrats.
Apparently Bush privately called them to offer support and best wishes.
The democrats had press conferences,
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