To start I wish Elizabeth Edwards all the best in her fight.  I lost a step-mom to cancer, and presently my mother is fighting cancer as well, so I am full of compassion to someone fighting for their life.  Cancer sucks.  Period. 

And it is all the more painful when you were in remission and it reasserts.

Second, any hateful remarks against her over this I condemn in the strongest terms.  Period.   No buts about it.

But.

Any criticism of John Edwards about his motives and whether he will use this in his campaign?  Sorry, that is fair game.  That is a matter of evaluating his values and ethics, and for a person who wants to be my president, expect me to challenge your values.

Ken, you said:

His wife has incurable cancer.

He’s still going to run for president.

That was enough information to have some people jump in and condemn John Edwards.

One of my colleagues — I’ll not embarrass him by using his name — even went so far as to insist that Edwards was eager to exploit his wife’s illness as a way to give his presidential campaign a boost.

While I would balk at the word eager, I think if the means would present itself he would.  As a trial lawyer he made a living at exploiting other’s suffering, it is in his blood.

What I’ve been reading on news blogs has been even worse:

Comments about how Elizabeth Edwards is just getting what she deserves.

Comments about how her husband probably hopes she’ll stay alive long enough to turn sympathy into political support.

I would love to see you cite sources here.  As you told me on the air once, the proof is in the pudding.  Please show me references.  For what its worth I looked and did find some, on both sides of the aisle.  But they were extremely rare, and universally condemned in their communities.

I don’t understand what compels people to be so cold.

I personally share your wonderment, I cannot fathom such hatred.

To be sure, there were a lot of thoughtful comments with promises of prayer and good wishes.

And to be honest, those were the majority of what I read, but the nasty, cruel messages were sizable in their minority.

Now you need to qualify that.  How sizable?  Where?

It made me angry.

It made me sad.

And it made me wonder if we’ve become so polarized in our beliefs and values that we’re losing the capacity to understand the concepts of compassion and courage.

You must be kidding.  Have you suddenly woken from a Rip Van Winkle sleep and realized that politics is dirty?  Go look at all the blogs on Democratic Underground and KOS that advocate killing Bush, raping his daughters and even worse.

Did you miss the people burning troops in effigy this weekend?  Sorry if I focus so much on the demented hatred and derangement of the far left, but I have to, they are twice as likely to be that way.

Ken I have enjoyed speaking to you and occasionally feeling like I have given you something to think about. 

But you are completely naive if you do not think Edwards would take advantage of this.

Look what happened today:  He announced a press conference and the rumours were fast and furious he was quitting. 

Why?  Because it is what most of us would do in similar situations:  Quit to focus on our loved ones.

Instead he plans to campaign on.  Expecting as I did his withdrawal, or at least a scale down, I was a bit surprised to hear his determination to carry on.

I asked myself: If he did not want to draw attention to it, why the big press conference?  Why the media event if he wanted this not to be a either a distraction or a tool?

A simple press statement, asking for support, prayers and most of all respect and privacy would have sufficed.

No.  He wanted press and he got it.  He played the press from the word go, even if it was a small play.

Where are his priorities?  This is the man who wants to lead America.  What are his values like under pressure?  I know she supports his decision, and that is their joint decision, not mine, but honestly I have lost respect for him.

While some might find encouragement that he would press on despite distractions, to me it shows a callous indifference to someone’s suffering.  If he shows such disregard to his life mate, will he care about my family?  Or yours Ken?

I am convinced this is John Edwards ESQ, the trial attorney and Sen Edwards the politician we are seeing, not John Edwards the husband and the family man.

I would vote for the later.  I will not vote for the former.  We have enough politicians and lawyers in DC.

By the way.  In your hate mail I am sure many will accuse you of showing outrage only because Edwards is a Democrat. 

I disagree.  FWIW I believe you would show similar outrage against a similar situation on the right.

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