Posted on 05/17/2009 1:29:33 PM PDT by presidio9
The coverage of Elizabeth Edwards' week-old book and her promotional tour leaves us with two competing portraits. Is she (a) the valiant victim finally having her say for those who don't have a voice? Or (b) the unlikely opportunist, exacting revenge against her wayward husband and dragging her family back into the muck?
Over two presidential campaigns and a public battle with cancer, John Edwards' wife mostly benefited from the media's predilection for a single narrative. Profiles of Elizabeth the brave proliferated, and none questioned the stability of her marriage or would conflict with the title of her current memoir, "Resilience."
But some in the commentariat have had enough. Maureen Dowd called Edwards out for dragging her husband "back into the public square for a flogging" over his affair with a one-time campaign videographer. Writer Rebecca Traister at Salon.com called the political wife's book tour "one of the most sadomasochistic publicity jaunts in political history."
After speaking to Edwards, former campaign aides and reporters who covered her over two presidential races, I can't provide a single neat answer. More than five years after first meeting her on the campaign trail, I can only say this latest self-revelation inspires both tremendous compassion and tremendous compassion fatigue.
No one doubts that Elizabeth Edwards has traveled a very tough road -- the loss of her teenage son to a car accident, a prolonged bout with incurable cancer and the unfaithfulness of her husband, former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina.
Jim Morrill of the Charlotte Observer,
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Wouldn’t surprise me if he did. Too bad more people didn’t bother to learn the facts about him before he got so close to the Vice Presidency, if not the Presidency.
Ditto
And I'm certain that these two liberal women writers would be just as chastizing of Elizabeth Edwards if her husband was a Republican. NOT.
Sorry, but that illegitimate child is an "it"“it”. It has No legal status as far as Elizabeth is concerned. In Arkansas, they would call that child a “Woods Colt”, meaning that the child could be the child of any horse in the woods, any horse running loose.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.