Edwards Out?

Spent a bunch of time over the past half hour SMS-ing and otherwise communicating with friends and putative sources trying to hunt down rumors that John Edwards is going to drop out of the race tomorrow. My brilliant speculation was that this might be related to his wife experience health problems. Turns out I should have just come to terms with the fact that I'm not much of a reporter and . . . read The New York Times where Adam Nagourney has what there is to know of the story: "John Edwards, the North Carolina Democrat making a second bid for the presidency, called a news conference for Thursday to discuss the future of his campaign. On Wednesday, Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, visited Mrs. Edwards’ doctor to assess her health to follow up on her recovery from a bout of breast cancer."

Obviously, I'm not in a position to know exactly what that means, but it seems to indicate a bad diagnosis for Mrs. Edwards and, quite likely, an end to the Edwards campaign.

Comments

The NYT's Caucus blog had this tidbit:


Jennifer Palmieri, communications director for the campaign, said that she would not provide any details in advance of Thursday’s press conference. We were told not to assume the worst.

Based on this and CNN suggesting the same, it looks to me like Elizabeth Edwards has had some serious-but-not-immediately-life-threatening complications, and that John Edwards will suspend his campaign for the time being.

In any case, Elizabeth Edwards has always come across as a wonderful person and one of the most likable of political spouses -- she's candid, sincere, funny and will get into it with people in her blog entries. Let's all hope for her full recovery, if she has indeed suffered a setback.

Posted by: Ryan on March 22, 2007 12:32 AM

Thanks, Ryan, that's encouraging. At least, compared to how I felt before I read it.

I hope she's okay. Damn.

Posted by: Neil the Ethical Werewolf on March 22, 2007 12:36 AM

Man, that's a downer. (Not the part about not assuming the worst; that's making it a little easier.)

Ryan's totally right about Mrs. Edwards. The times I've run into her contributions to the online dialog have always shown her to be the very best of folks.

Posted by: dj moonbat on March 22, 2007 12:46 AM

Damn, I like Edwards the most out of all the candidates, although I don't think he'll win. I do hope he has a chance to stay in the race, though, and that his wife is OK, of course.

Posted by: Chad Okere on March 22, 2007 01:00 AM

"We were told not to assume the worst."

'Tis a thin reed to hang hope upon, but it'll have to do for 12 hours.

It would seem to indicate something around the #3 choice from the Aravosis menu. And if so, hell, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right?

-----

Pretty fucked up news all around, I must say.

Posted by: Petey on March 22, 2007 01:04 AM

"Damn, I like Edwards the most out of all the candidates, although I don't think he'll win."

He had a clear path to the basket prior to this news.

Posted by: Petey on March 22, 2007 01:07 AM

Let's hope that it's something mundane like a fund-raising goal and that Elizabeth Edwards hasn't had a recurrence.

Posted by: Ric Caric on March 22, 2007 01:11 AM

I went and made an ass of myself over at Ezra's, so I might as well make it a two-fer and go for it here.
If Ms. Edwards has to fight cancer, I hope that does not make Mr. Edwards abandon the race.
That is not how things should work.

Posted by: Dick Durata on March 22, 2007 01:55 AM

I emailed Ezra with the news because I know he is an Edwards supporter and I loved giving him a hard time over it.
This is such a sad thing. If he suspends the campaign you know he is not going to run it back up again.
I am hoping things will go well for both of them. I liked them.
I support another campaign but, always defended him.
Those who are his supporters my best wishes.
Let us keep good thoughts.

Posted by: vwcat on March 22, 2007 02:18 AM

Here's hoping for the best. The silly thing attached to the sadness is that the fact that Edwards is willing to subjugate his ambitions to his family's needs, while most of the candidates from the party of Family Values treated their first and sometimes second wives like disposable inconveniences.

Posted by: aleks on March 22, 2007 02:46 AM

It is conceivable that she has been given a clean bill of health, and that Edwards is doing this to emphasize the need for all Americans to have the quality care that made this possible for Elizabeth.

Posted by: bob h on March 22, 2007 06:55 AM

Cue Ann Coulter with something insanely crass, insensitive and over the top regarding Mrs. Edwards, cancer, liberals, etc.

Posted by: steve duncan on March 22, 2007 07:47 AM

Bob H, that would be a lousy thing to do. You don't use suspense and concern over your wife's health to make a point about policy. All the signs say this is upsetting news, and the only point of suspense is just how bad the medical news is and whether Edwards is going to take a break or drop out.

Assuming her cancer come back, I hope they found it good and early and are optimistic about treatment, and I hope Edwards takes a break and is able to resume. I actually like Obama more, but I think Edwards is a crucial voice on poverty. A campaign without Edwards would be an even more tedious Obama v. Clinton slugfest than it is already.

Posted by: charlie on March 22, 2007 07:51 AM

I'm sorry to say this - but if rumors are true, could it be even possible for Newt Gingrich to run now? I mean, if you compare what he did when he wife had cancer to Edwards...

Posted by: mikeo on March 22, 2007 08:42 AM

Not to be crass, as I'm sure Mrs. Edwards' health is really in trouble, but it looks like Johnny is going to milk this thing for some much-needed publicity. He hasn't gotten much on his own, being the also-ran to Hillary and Obama.

Posted by: Blake Hounshell on March 22, 2007 08:53 AM

Not to be crass

And yet that's exactly what you were.

Posted by: apostropher on March 22, 2007 08:58 AM

Cue Ann Coulter with something insanely crass, insensitive and over the top regarding Mrs. Edwards, cancer, liberals, etc.

Posted by: steve duncan on March 22, 2007 07:47 AM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Didn't have to wait for Coulter, we have Blake Hounshell stepping to the plate first.

Posted by: steve duncan on March 22, 2007 09:01 AM

Sorry Blake, but that is incredibly crass. Why don't you hold your breath and wait until after the press conference to start sliming Edwards? I think maybe you should take a good look at a couple facing an uncertain cancer diagnosis, hear their words, and sense their dread before you mouth off with your piss-poor political analysis.

Posted by: charlie on March 22, 2007 09:01 AM

I am so very very very sorry but hopeful for the wonderful Edwards family.

Posted by: Jennifer on March 22, 2007 09:10 AM

I am not certain that suspension of a campaign would kill it. Obviously it could. However, with such an early campaign, and, I think a strategy of laying low while Clinton and Obama trade body blows, it is not a done deal that a suspension would be the end.

Here is hoping the best to Edwards and his family whatever the news.

Posted by: theCoach on March 22, 2007 09:29 AM

'Not to be crass'

Wow. Quite crass, actually.

Posted by: jonnybutter on March 22, 2007 10:10 AM

Edwards has certainly come a long way as a candidate on the last four years, and even if he drops out I suspect we haven’t heard the last from him.

When Giuliani had to drop out of his Senate race with Hillary because of health problems, it probably ended up helping his long term political prospects. The same could end up being true of Edwards as well

Posted by: RC on March 22, 2007 10:38 AM

Very sad if it's the case. Of the three "serious" Democrats running for the White House he is the one least likely to ever be president and therefore a better person than the rest of them.

Posted by: Linus on March 22, 2007 11:23 AM

Blake is a good guy. I would take him at his word that he didn't mean to be crass. That said, cancer is cancer and it's unfair to jump to the conclusion that Edwards would even try to benefit from it. I'd say the same thing about most Republicans - even Bush.

Posted by: JP on March 22, 2007 11:27 AM

I'm not sure if anyone is disputing that he didn't mean to be crass, but he was still crass either way.

Posted by: Steve on March 22, 2007 11:28 AM

I guess we'll see. Sorry to offend. Should have waited for the announcement.

Posted by: Blake Hounshell on March 22, 2007 11:48 AM

So it appears Mrs. Edwards' cancer is back (in the bones) and not curable but treatable.

I stopped watching the feed at that point but I read elsewhere that Edwards is not out of the race.

This is good news I think. He has had a genuinely humanizing effect on this campaign. My complaint in 2004 was that none of the Democrats running for president in 2004 wanted to be president badly enough. My complaint this time around is that the front-runners (Hillary and Obama) really do want to be president; it dehumanizes them. The whole affair would have been unpleasantly cold without Edwards.

Posted by: Linus on March 22, 2007 12:39 PM

Yes, Blake is a good guy, so I was frankly surprised to read that comment. Maybe it just came out wrong. It was not so much crass as just really bad faith. There is, floating around out there, an only semi-rational mistrust/visceral dislike for Edwards which is anyone's perfect right to have - although I think it says at least as much about the people having it as about Edwards; but that is that, and this is this.

I don't see anything objectionable about the way this was handled; it was probably Elizabeth's idea to hold the presser, and control the publicity - for the campaign and for breast cancer awareness. They didn't drag it out - they made the decision to keep the campaign going last night - and if they *hadn't* held a presser, there probably would've been even more speculation. Cable news is running with it because they're always desperate for 'breaking stories'. So?

I'm not ascribing this to Blake necessarily, but there is a residual liberal fastidiousness, prudery really, about modern PR and campaigning - namely that if you are not incompetent in those areas you aren't really 'serious'. I think the opposite is true.

Posted by: jonnybutter on March 22, 2007 01:25 PM

thanks
best regards

Posted by: mirc on September 23, 2007 10:23 AM

good shemale

Posted by: travesti on September 26, 2008 05:11 PM

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