cross posted from Daily Kos
I think we may have seen an American President today.
We've been at sea for so long that we've forgotten that character counts. Until today, that is. Until John and Elizabeth Edwards stood before the nation and showed us what American leadership is all about.
It has been many long years since we have had people with the character of John and Elizabeth Edwards in positions of leadership. So for me, it was startling and breathtaking to behold.
I honestly and sadly ask myself, do we deserve John Edwards, a man of such compelling decency leading us and our beleaguered nation? Are we worthy of him and Elizabeth? Will the American people sacrifice for them as they are sacrificing for us?
In what must have been one of the most wrenching and painful events of their lives, they stepped up and addressed the American people with candor, dignity and courage.
Courage? Leadership? Strength? Integrity? How long has it been since we have heard the truth spoken from anyone who proclaims to be a leader?
Indeed, we have been robbed of these qualities of grace which we witnessed in John and Elizabeth Edwards today and which few leaders actually possess.
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I think I saw an American President today.
Many talk about courage, but have never met a war they didn't want to send the son of someone less fortunate to fight and die in.
I was deeply moved listening to John and Elizabeth Edwards. Their quiet courage appears second nature and in stark contrast to the empty bravado we have witnessed for six long and bleak years. They lost a son and didn't succumb. The cancer has returned and they won't surrender.
Dare we call these good people profiles in courage?
I met John Edwards several years ago, it was in Charleston, South Carolina he was signing his book, Four Trials. This was before he became the vice presidential nominee in 2004.
To this day, I cannot explain my reaction. But I became very teary as I watched this kind man go around and introduce himself to the few people who had come to meet him.
I turned to my mother and said, "this man is going to be President of the United States." I have no idea why I said it or why I felt this so intensely. But I did.
I know why I became teary. Because I thought of the burdens of office which would surely be heaped on his young shoulders.
I saw someone approaching presidential strength and stature today.
It has been many years since we have beheld an American President.
God speed Elizabeth and John Edwards. Blessings from all of us to you and your children.
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Courage
I like your blog, but I did not react the same way when I saw this. I'm not sure I would want my husband to spend what could be the last year's of my life on the road for a political campaign. He is young and could run again. I actually lost some respect for him.
There is another way to look at this
Your view of Edwards' decision seems to imply that he made this decision alone, rather selfishly.
Have you not read about Elizabeth Edwards? I think she made this decision as much as he did, and she is very clear: she wanted him to keep running. Perhaps this is what she needs as the final effort of her life. If that is true - and I think it is, would he be doing something better to deny her what she wants?
And there is more: You are assuming that she will die quickly, and that he should be sitting beside her deathbed rather than running. However, she may live quite a while, as they have good reason to expect. Other Presidents have had spouses die before and after they were elected. Was this a loss? Certainly, to them. But not necessarily to their dying spouses.
I saw my father often in the year and a half between the time he started to die, and his death. The strength and life he and my mother both drew from her continued work in her demanding job was palpable. She was certainly pressed and widely expected to quit work to tend to his every need during that time, but fortunately, that didn't happen. Her work kept him connected to the world, and helped him feel that he was not taking her away from her life. He knew that she would need that life and that life would need her after he was gone. He told me that not long before he died, and he was right.
So, please reconsider your unfavorable opinion of this decision. I think it is fine and right for you to have your preferences about your own life. But please do not think that your own life would apply to John and Elizabeth Edwards in their life together. Each couple must face their own situation, and their own strengths.