It seems that most people are missing the point of the Edwards announcement. Ezra Klein, thankfully, is not.
I agree with K-Lo. I'd bet good money that John Edwards is staying in the race in part because Elizabeth wants him to. Of the two, she's undoubtedly more politically active, committed, and thoughtful. And whether these are her last years or not, I don't think it's a particularly strange desire for her to want to spend them making a mark, listening to others, trying to make manifest her and her husband's vision of what America can and should be.
There's a sort of subtle insinuation that sick people should crawl back into their caves and stay there till they either die or get better. But when you hear the Edwards's discuss the idea that her cancer is now incurable, that it's not something she will get better from and so not something where they can hit pause, wait for it to pass, and then resume their lives, you have to think that the question they're asking themselves is not how can Elizabeth best get well, but how would they like to spend the rest of their years. And knowing her even casually, I'm not surprised to learn the answer is "fighting."
We all die sometime. We all understand that. But few of us face it directly when we are in the prime of our lives. The Edwards family, however, has had no choice. First they lost their son Wade in 1996, and now Elizabeth is facing a treatable but incurable form of cancer. Despite it all, they continue to fight to leave the world a better place than they found it. How anyone can criticize that is beyond me. I don't care what your politics are, nor how cynical you have become: if their example doesn't inspire you, you need to do some serious self-reflection.
Our lives on this rock are short. Do something. Make a difference. Create a change that will outlive you. Be the change that you want to see in the world. Do something.
UPDATE: David Kuo has more here:
Elizabeth Edwards and I shared a common experience of overcoming dreaded disease. Hers was breast cancer. Mine was a brain tumor. We got each other.
I told her how one of my blog readers, a neuro-oncologist, had chided me because I had taken up professional bass fishing after my White House days. I was irresponsible, the doctor told me. I should be advocating for brain tumor patients. I told her I didn't want to become known as "the brain tumor guy."She understood. Even though she wrote about her breast cancer recovery, she didn't want to be the breast cancer woman either. She wanted to go on and live life. We left with a promise to pray for each other.
My MRI was fine. I've wondered how her tests had gone and smiled thinking no news was inevitably good news. Then this morning's word that there would be a campaign announcement about her health. I knew what it was, what it had to be and I just stopped and images of needles and pills and chemo came flooding in...things I know too well.
I had no doubt about what would happen to the campaign. It would go on. She wouldn't allow anything else. To quit the campaign would be to give in to the disease - it would be the ultimate admission of being the "cancer woman."
I can't imagine the conversations she had with her husband - except that I can. How much will the illness define us? How much will we become steely fighters? How much will we just withdraw from the spotlight and fight this illness alone, with friends? What if... What if these are the last days? What would we regret more...?
When I interviewed John Edwards a few weeks ago, he answered a question about the suffering he'd endured - the loss of a son, Elizabeth's cancer - by saying that his faith had come "roaring back" in order for him to survive. We all need to pray for that roaring faith - for him, Elizabeth, and their children. We need to pray for healing for her. And for us? That this illness puts in politics in perspective for more than the next news cycle.
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