A Private Affair?

People sure have strong feelings about John and Elizabeth Edwards' marriage, and it's all getting stirred up again with the release of Elizabeth's new memoir, Resilience: Reflections on the Burdens and Gifts of Facing Life's Adversities, due out May 12. (Does anyone know why the cover looks like a romance novel? That seems in poor taste.)

My general feelings about this are that firstly, it seems clear that John Edwards should not be president of the United States, and probably shouldn't have run in the first place. Secondly, now that he's out of the public sphere, this is all really not anybody's business but their own. I know it's a little different when they're high-profile people like the Edwards. I also know that a lot of people who supported John in the primaries feel betrayed. Those all really understandable reactions, but it still doesn't justify things like some of the comments here.

Cheating is really bad. It can destroy relationships and devastate people. But passing judgment on how Elizabeth Edwards has dealt with her husband's extramarital affair reminds me of the town gossips. Such a thing can only be understood when you're inside the situation. Instead, I'd prefer we focus on the fact that she has mad cool things to say about health care reform.

Dear Gossip Blogs: Elizabeth Edwards Knows Things About Health Care!

Well this is annoying. Campus Progress, our sister organization, sponsored an event with Elizabeth Edwards and Ezra Klein to talk about health care on Monday. Since then, the story that has come out of the event was that– gasp!–Edwards wasn’t wearing her wedding ring (presumably fallout from her husband’s messy and publicly exposed affair).

Megan said it first, but I’ll second it: Edwards is a smart, wonky person who knows her stuff when it comes to health care. As a victim of breast cancer, she’s had some invaluable up-close-and-personal encounters with the health care system. She’s critical of both the health care plans proposed by the major party candidates and is a committed advocate of comprehensive health care reform. How obnoxious, then, that after an hour-and-a-half discussion about the intricacies of the health care system all anyone can talk about is her personal life.

I’ve said it before, but quite frankly John Edwards’ affair and the fallout from it is none of the public’s business. It’s clearly a very private issue, and it’s a shame that the gossip blogs have seized on this. And if we’re really honest and take a long hard look at this, affairs aren’t all that uncommon. They happen to people every day, and have for centuries. To single one family out for public judgment is unfair and unwarranted.

Yes, I know that this is what gossip blogs do, but come on, people. Rather than pegging her as a victim, we should allow her to do her public work. Edwards is an intelligent human being with a lot to say about one of the most important issues today. Can we at least acknowledge that she deserves credit for that?

Cross posted at Pushback.

Health Care Wonkery

Yesterday I saw a pretty wonkarific health care event with Ezra and Elizabeth Edwards. Here's a crappy little video I filmed with my digital camera and edited with iMovie, but the full professional video can be seen here.

ELIZABETH EDWARDS, CAMPAIGNER.

This story in yesterday's WaPo about Elizabeth Edwards assailing her husband's rivals was one of many I've seen lately that features her taking an extremely active campaign role, more so than either of the other frontrunner spouses Michelle Obama or Bill Clinton. In fact, though I'm a little young to remember this, Elizabeth Edwards reminds me of the kind of active campaigner that Hillary Clinton was in the early '90s -- taking strong stances on the issues, launching attacks on other candidates, and even representing her husband at events targeted at women voters. Obviously, Elizabeth Edwards isn't running for president. John is. But I seem to recall that this model of campaign team worked very well for the Clintons in the '90s.

--Kay Steiger

Cross-posted at TAPPED.