If there was something “discomfiting” about the announcement that Mr. Edwards was staying in the race or something “more discomfiting” about “the claim that by soldiering on while his wife has incurable cancer, he would be proving that he could deal with the pressures of being president,” what, exactly was thwarted? Whose plans, what plans were overthrown? Who or what was thrown into a state of perplexity or confusion?

SURELY, Carney is not one of those semi-educated “writers,” so cocksure of his own semi-knowledge that he neglects to look words up in the dictionary, who think “discomfit” means “to make uncomfortable.”

Is Carney ignorant of the meaning of the word? Or maybe he was making, in some oblique way, Jane’s very point: that the announcement undid, defeated, and routed the view that Elizabeth Edwards is “[h]andicapped, a withering violet who must be banished from public life, consigned to the fainting couch.” Nah, he’s an idiot.

I’ve been leaning toward supporting Edwards myself tho haven’t completely closed the deal. Perhaps this difficult news about Elizabeth’s condition will have a silver lining — the media and the public might actually pay more attention to his really interesting and compelling campaign rather than turning the Dem race into the Hillary and Obama show by almost exclusively covering them ad nauseum (and I like Obama but geez he’s not the only guy in this race, ya know?).

Did anyone else catch Cokie Roberts on GMA this morning? First time in years — nay, decades — that I’ve stood up and cheered when she spoke. Of course, she’s a breast cancer survivor and the daughter of a father and a mother both of whom were higly driven political people, just like John & Elizabeth Edwards — so she has a little bit of a clue in this arena. I especially liked that she said something to the effect that “getting on with the work at hand” can be a powerful form of therapy/motivation for a person and their family facing this disease. Well, duh.

And this BS about if she were sick when he was President would he be able to focus. Good grief. Plenty of Presidents have had to struggle with illness or family tragedy and did just fine. Edwards’ answer to this was so spot on — if you’re not prepared to deal with very difficult sudden challenges, you shouldn’t be running for President. Well, duh.

And what is the deal with the white male comment in Carney’s article? What an idiot. As if that’s the only reason someone would vote for Edwards. Note to Jay: A lot of people who are really obsessed with maintaining white male privilege/dominance have kind of left the Dems, in case you hadn’t noticed.

And the infanitilizing of Elizabeth in his article — oy. Has Jay not noticed that the media constantly trumpets stories of people, disabled or with illness, who make the most of the hand their dealt and accomplish amazing things? Aren’t we supposed to admire and gain inspiration from from stories like these? Apparently Jay Carney needs to watch some Lifetime movies. /snark/

Let me say this slowly, so even the most dense out there can understand:

This is between Elizabeth and John Edwards. PERIOD. So get your nosy ass out of their business. I can tell you — I am 53 years old, and there have been NO Republicans in my adult life who were worth much.

Reagan? Ford? Nixon? Either Bush?

Give me a break.

sigh.

I’ll take Attorney/Mom Elizabeth Edwards with stage 4 bone cancer met. from breast cancer as First Lady over anyone the republican party nominates.

You need someone who knows how to handle the rough stuff in life in the office of the POTUS…and John Edwards has the right stuff to handle the rough stuff in life.

I saw both Kerry and Edwards in person during the 04 compaign and Edwards is electric. I have never seen such a compaigner.

I think it’s really up to the 57 year old adult woman named Elizabeth Edwards to decide how she wants to live her life, and as John said, he doesn’t mandate anything to Elizabeth Edwards.

Now, I’m going to do what Elizabeth asked and ‘Get back to work” by planning my house party for John Edwards.

You can try to shun him all you want, but it doesn’t change the fact that Elizabeth has a very bad form of cancer and it’ll weigh on people’s minds that John is continuing with his presidential bid.

jane , this piece made me laugh till i cried; then i got pissed off with the carney comment and twirled on my computer chair and fell over since i forgot a screw was loose in it ( not me). thanks.