From the book, it seems that Elizabeth and John campaign separately most of the time. Of course, it could change, but they do want to cover the most territory, and meet the most people. She campaigned in small venues, such as library's and coffees and small groups. Of course they were about unknown it the last election. By the end of the election the groups that gathered to see her were quite large. Both also have to make time to see the younger children. Either having them with them or going to visit them. Quite a strenuous life. She knows a lot what is ahead of her. Hopefully she will not have any allergic or unusual reactions to the drugs.

Incredible
 

Just have to, all you should be on TV! You are all outstanding, extraordinary, incredible and the list goes on, women. The world should see the extent of this disease from all, not just one individual. The numbers would be staggering and the impact would be a benefit!

Just my two bits!

excellent link to support why the Edwards continue to compaign
 

Our local paper had a nice article this morning, which included an e-mail address set up by the campaign for well-wishers:

elizabeth@johnedwards.com

I sent an e-mail this morning thanking her for being a positive face for Stage IV'ers.

<3 Lolly

Thank you Lolly and Robin for both of your links.

I've had mixed reactions to this news, after sorrow for what she has suffered and will be going through. Grateful for the attention such a public figure will bring to our disease, a little irritated that I couldn't turn on the news without seeing it and thinking of all the women on this board and elsewhere who have "silently" fought for so long and are the "everyday heros" to the rest of us and our families. At first I couldn't believe John Edwards was continuing the campaign, but then I know that working has helped keep me sane and focused and normalized life for my 9 year old daughter. I guess we all help others according to our talents and in our own ways!
Peace and Blessings

I felt so proud of her and of us all after the way the announcement was made-what a lady full of grace. Ceesun

this damn diseace sure cuts all political ideology, don't it?

I feel like I know exactly what she's going through, just like all of us do.

I hope she gets good treatment and holds through. We are lucky to have her and i'm glad she has come out and let all to know, that in itself is support for her recovery.

I hope that she is outspoken. the more exposure, the more awareness, more research funds, a cure? Well you all know my speech on this one :)

MCS ( maria)

This news also saddened me deeply. Such an amazing woman with incredible spirit. She was not HER2+ at her original diagnosis and also had positive lymph nodes...not sure how many but think it was several. This is from a friend that worked under Clinton and is friends with them. We can pray for her and her family and hopefully get her into remission. My friend told me that how we see them publically is how they are privately. They have deep love and affection for each other. It is so sad!!

Ruth

I fully support their decision..
 

I am very glad they decided to run. I bet it was her pushing him to do so. I recently told my husband to not hold back because of my disease and to pursue his career. I was stage 3 w/7 nodes and just felt like we were holding our breath waiting for metastasis~ Since then he has gone all out to find a job he will love. In preparation for a possible move I have sold my pottery equipment and ended my work as a clay artist. I am pursuing other artistic endevors. I was hurt that some of my friends thought he was being selfish to do this to me. In spite of my telling then I was pushing him to do it. I know my life might not be going on for 20 or more years but his hopefully will. He needs to live like it will and I want to do all I can to not hold him back. I will continue to live and breathe art wherever we are. He has loved me so well through this... I completly understand the Edwards decision to go on living! Cancer will not kill me till I am in the grave!

well, after I post my two cents I read this in the NYTimes.... wow.
<nyt_headline version="1.0" type=" "> Facing a New Battle, Mrs. Edwards Set Campaign’s Fate </nyt_headline>

<nyt_byline version="1.0" type=" "> </nyt_byline>By JENNIFER STEINHAUER
<nyt_text> </nyt_text> LAS VEGAS, March 24 — As the nurse fumbled to find the vein in her arm last Wednesday and Elizabeth Edwards was bracing for the worst possible news, her decision about her husband’s presidential campaign was sealed.

A doctor had already told her a bone scan revealed that her cancer had returned in an incurable form. Mrs. Edwards was preparing for further tests — ones she said she expected would reveal a perilous spread of the cancer — and her husband, who is squeamish about IV’s, had left the room.

“I was feeling particularly desperate,” she said during an interview here Saturday with her husband, John.

As she spoke with the nurses, Mrs. Edwards recalled: “They said they really supported John, and I started sort of breaking apart. I said, ‘It’s really important that he run.’ ”

Mrs. Edwards — whose decision to push her husband to run for president in spite of her illness provoked an intense discussion across the country about illness, ambition, child-rearing and death — said her husband’s candidacy was not only about his needs and desires. She said it also reflected her own life and her wish to be something other than a woman best known for her illness.

“I expect to live a long time,” Mrs. Edwards said. “I expect us to have lots and lots of years together. I do believe that. But if that’s not the case, I don’t want my legacy to be that I pulled somebody who ought to be president out of the race. It’s not fair to me, in a sense.”

Saying she hoped to be “heavily involved” in her husband’s campaign, she said: “My feeling is, if we gave up what we have committed to as our life’s work, wouldn’t I be getting ready to die? That’s what I’d be doing. This cause is not just John’s cause, it’s my cause.”

Her feelings that her husband should press on with his bid were oddly illuminated, she said, as she sat getting her IV, thinking that the test results would reveal cancer throughout her body — something that turned out not to be the case.

“I was thinking at the time if I light up like a Christmas tree perhaps John would feel like he could not be a candidate,” she said.

Mr. Edwards, in announcing his wife’s condition, said Thursday that his campaign to capture the Democratic presidential nomination “goes on strongly.” Yesterday, the couple were in Las Vegas at a health care forum after a round of fund-raising events in California.

Mrs. Edwards, who received her original diagnosis of breast cancer at the end of the 2004 campaign, realized last Monday that she was feeling worrisome pains. On Wednesday she spent an 11-hour day at a North Carolina hospital getting confirmation of a diagnosis of stage four breast cancer, which had moved into her bones.

The couple’s immediate announcement that the campaign would continue set into motion a judgment day of sorts for the two, with some Americans seeing their decision as a symbol of strength, and others smelling something more like craven ambition.

Some people — as demonstrated by responses to blogs and other forums — believe the Edwardses are stealing time from each other and their children, while others see a couple that has weathered the tribulations and assaults life brings to most families, and could set a national example of coping. Mr. Edwards characterized both points of view as “fair” ones.

“I want the country to understand that people are completely entitled to their opinions on this,” Mr. Edwards said in a 30-minute interview largely dominated by Mrs. Edwards. During the interview, the candidate carefully kept looking at his wife, at times tucking his hand gently under her arm, other times finishing her sentences.

The couple framed their decision and their coping mechanisms — both now and potentially for the future — through the loss of their son, Wade, who was killed in a car accident in 1996.

In terms of being mindful of their young children, Emma Claire, 8, and Jack, 6, Mr. Edwards said, “We both recognize that there is a tension in our desire to be the best possible parents we can be for our kids — and remember this is in the context of parents who lost a child — and our desire to serve our country.”

He added, “We will have to be sensitive to the needs of our children,” and said their youngest children would be a constant presence on the campaign trail. Both Mr. and Mrs. Edwards said they felt that their children would learn by their example. And they said they were confident their decision to run was the right one, even if some voters believe the exact opposite to be true.

“I think the best thing you can give your children is wings,” Mrs. Edwards said, to teach them to “stand by themselves in a stiff wind.”

Mr. Edwards said he could not anticipate a situation in which he would ever regret running for the presidency or serving, even if his wife’s illness brought her an early death. “Honestly I don’t,” he said.

“He shouldn’t,” Mrs. Edwards interjected.

A nation mourning a first lady, or having one who is seriously ill, would be much to bear. But in such a potential trial, they said, would rest their humanity, something that would bind them to other Americans who have experienced loss. Mr. Edwards also said he understood concerns that he could not properly focus on running a nation should his wife deteriorate or die. But he said, “I know from the tough life experiences we have already been through I will be able to focus and have the maturity to make judgments under difficult circumstances.”

Alluding to his son’s death, he said: “We have been through this kind of difficulty before. And I know how we respond.”

When asked about the suggestion some have made that the continuing campaign is an act of supreme denial about her cancer, Mrs. Edwards looked momentarily struck. Then, with her husband looking on somewhat tensely, she hurled back: “Absolutely! I am not giving it anything. If it expects to be the boss of me it’s gonna have to earn that.”

She added, “I am denying it control over how I spend the rest of my life.”

Although both Mr. and Mrs. Edwards professed surprise at the attention their decision has received, they said they saw a bright side: a national discussion of the ability of patients to live with cancer and of how people need to live their lives under the shroud of mortality.

“We made the choice to live,” Mrs. Edwards said. “We don’t want to do it surrounded by a veil of tears.”

Kimberly Lewis
 

You are a very special lady and it is evident how much you love and respect not only your husband but your marriage.

What you wrote is lovely and it came from your heart. And was truthful and sincere.

Truthfully I think it is a family decison on what ever the Edwards decide on. That being said based on my experiences as a bc with brain mets I would not want my husband to run for President (not that he was planning on it) LOL! It has taken it's emotional and physical toll on our family. I find it comforting that whenever I come out from a brain MRI that my husband is in the waiting room- hard to be there when you are president. I am all for people fulfilling their dreams despite their illness. I certainly have. My husband and I do not stay home thinking about my cancer. I just think it is very stressful having metastatic cancer and to be president would just be so overwhelming not to mention the two young children involved. Just my thoughts.

I really feel for Mrs. Edwards and certainly appreciate her making this public as it brings more awareness to this awful diease. But one thing I can't help but think family is more important and *later* might be a better time for John Edwards to hit the campaign road. I really think right now he could do more good by going around and rasing money for cancer research instead of for his campaign.

I personally feel like this will be wasted money John Edwards raises and later on down the road this would gain him alot of respect and votes. He's a great guy and he is still a very young man. He has plenty of time and right now I think he would get more votes next term if he was to campaign for cancer research right now. I can't speak for Mrs. Edwards but I do know if I was in their position it would feel great to take advantage of this chance to raise awareness and put focus on whats needed for more cancer awareness. I can't help but think that would'nt be a more positive thing for Mrs. Edwards. (But again, I will not pretend to speak for her or know how she feels.) I am sincerely thankful she went public with this. That alone speaks volumes. I was listening to one news reporter and he thought this way too. That the amount of money they raise for his campaign would be better used for cancer research. (I have very mixed feelings about this.)

Chelee