Liveblogging Edwards announcement :The Campaign Goes On!
Liveblogging NBC News:
She may have a fracture on the left side and may have something suspicious on her right side. Wednesday they went to the hospital. The cancer has returned and it is malignant.
She has had a battery of results. Her cancer is bad. It is confined in bone --he is saying it is a good thing.
When it goes into the bone it is no longer curable, it is only treatable. The tumor is small and that is why they are optimistic. John is saying that many patients go on to live for a long time. It is similar to what diabetes patients have to live with.
Elizabeth says the needed to talk to their family and the kids, The kids thought that it was cool for her to loose her hair the first time and are disappointed she may not go bald again.
She is saying that every cancer survivor goes through this. They know the ache on a side, that any symptom might be putting you into alarm mode. This is something that every survivor has to live with for the rest for their life. She doesn't forsee changing anything.
She is asymptomatic. Cracking the rib was a 'fluke'. Had she not cracked the rib, she would not have had the opportunity to catch the cancer.
The campaign goes on. "We are not choosing not to cower in a corner".
They are going forward. They are coming tonight to New York City to the DL21C event.
"I am immensly proud of this campaign ... Is this a hardship for us? ... There is nobody offering a more positive and delineated vision of where we can go on as a county. "
They are not stopping. They are going forward.
"This is the most extraordinarily unselfish woman I have ever known".
John Edwards has said that all Elizabeth was talking about while they were at the hospital, just the two of them, about the campaign, how he was doing and about what they were dealing with the issues around the country.
They have come forward to assuage people's fears; but to stress that this is a quality of life issue. This is about how they deal with a chronic condition. She has amazing health care that many americans do not have and that's what they stressed during the press conference. They feel going forward is absolutely important not just for Elizabeth, but for the many Americans who are struggling and have nowhere to go with their health problems due to lack of coverage.
I am absolutely in awe of these two.
No matter how mad I may be about the feminist blogger mess, I am still an Elizabeth Edwards fangirl. My heart and meditations go her, her family and her husband.
Hurrah for both of them.
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Cancer | Family | Health | 2008 Presidential Elections | Democrats | Elizabeth Edwards | John Edwards
yes, it looks like they are coming
Submitted by liza on 22 March 2007 - 2:35pm.
they said they were coming to NYC
Me too - Long Live Elizabeth!
Submitted by JJ Ross on 22 March 2007 - 4:02pm.
In awe is a good way to put it . . . 
What would you do in their situation?
Submitted by rwallnerny2007 on 23 March 2007 - 12:25pm.
Honestly, having thought about it for the last day, if I was in John Edwards' situation, I think I would have seriously considered dropping out. There is a significant possibility that Elizabeth Edwards could get very sick or worse during the next five years. Democratic primary voters are going to ask themselves, "what if we nominate Edwards and Elizabeth gets sick in the fall and he has to get off the campaign trail before the general?" Or general election voters might ask, "if he gets elected President, and she gets sick or dies while he's in office, do "we take the risk of what his emotional state might be then particularly if the nation is in some other crisis at the time?". After all people react to the death of close loved ones in different ways. Also they might reasonably ask, "do we want this soap opera over elizabeth's health hanging over the white house for four years?" There are frankly going to be some voters who might not vote for Edwards by the time the primaries or the general come around if she has gotten sicker because they will think he should be home with his wife and kids.
I know it is an intensely personal decision for the Edwards' to make. I think they are courageous for continuing this campaign. If I was Edwards, I might not want to continue the race though, because in this situation, could I guarantee to the american people that I would be the most emotionally stable and centered person to lead this country for the next four or eight years, when my wife has incurable stage 4 cancer?
Wasn't the news
Submitted by NanceConfer on 23 March 2007 - 1:24pm.
that she has incurable but treatable, manageable cancer, more akin to diabetes than some debilitating illness?
I had the impression, watching the Edwards at yesterday's press conference, that they had given this a lot of thought and made a mutual decision about what they think is best for the country. Not that this was something they hadn't considered from all sides.
People might choose not to vote for Edwards because he cares about his wife's health. They just might.
I wonder if that isn't an argument for young, unattached Presidents from now on? Or is it better when a President has a clue about the normal bumps along life's road?
Nance
This isn't diabetes
Submitted by rwallnerny2007 on 23 March 2007 - 1:45pm.
This isn't diabetes, this is stage 4 cancer. The NYTimes article today (page A16)quotes statistics that only 26% of women with stage 4 breast cancer survive longer than five years, and just 81.3% of women within Elizabeth Edwards particular category-- which is not quite as serious-- live for five years or more. Those are cold, hard figures. This is not a curable disease at that stage, it will only get worse and eventually she's going to die of it unless a miracle cure is found. One of the more horrid things about cancer is you never know how fast it will spread. Peoples' bodies are different.
Voters are going to have a right to be concerned about Edwards' emotional state if his wife's cancer turns aggresive while he's campaigning or while he's president. If you have other perfectly viable candidates, wouldn't you consider the ones who aren't dealing with serious family health issues to be potentially safer picks?
It would be impermissable
Submitted by JJ Ross on 23 March 2007 - 4:56pm.
discrimination if we were hiring an employee, wouldn't it?
I'd pick
Submitted by NanceConfer on 23 March 2007 - 2:01pm.
the candidate who has a clue about how these healthcare issues can impact a family.
But that's me.
Nance
While I admire Elizabeth
Submitted by minjofromcocomo on 14 April 2007 - 11:31am.
While I admire Elizabeth Edwards courage and determination I think John Edwards might have made a bad decision to continue with his campaign because if he gets elected will he always wonder did I get elected based on my own merit and ideas for this country? or did I get elected because the country sympathises with me?
Only if this is some ego trip
Submitted by JJ Ross on 14 April 2007 - 5:41pm.
to him, competing to win just to prove something about himself to himself, rather than to advance the causes he cares most about.
Are you perhaps thinking of the movie president played by Michael Douglas, having this same conversation with chief of staff Martin Sheen, about getting elected for a second term without the sympathy vote for his wife's cancer?
Or maybe the fictional lawyer My Cousin Vinny, in which Joe Pesci won't let Marisa Tomei or anyone else help him, because he's so determined he must win his cases completely on his own?
So is tonight's event still on?
So is tonight's event at the Branch still on? If he flies up this afternoon Im sure he'll get quite a reception. Probably gain a couple points in the polls too, sympathy support.