Elizabeth Edwards says trust is biggest hurdle

Source: NYT/AP

The wife of former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards says her husband's extramarital affair has allowed her to focus on the importance of her children and health reform as she goes through ''an ongoing process of finding your feet again.'' ''There's a lot of adjustment to make,'' Elizabeth Edwards told the Detroit Free Press for a story published Thursday. ''When you mention trust, that's probably the most difficult hurdle.''

The interview came more than a month after her husband acknowledged that he repeatedly lied about having an affair in 2006.

Elizabeth Edwards, 59, had been quiet about the affair, only discussing it in a brief statement last month in which she pleaded for privacy and said her husband confessed the affair to her in 2006.

Edwards, who is being treated for breast cancer, spoke to the newspaper ahead of a visit to Detroit next month to talk about coping with life's setbacks, including the loss of her teenage son in an auto accident and her 2004 cancer diagnosis.

She also said she wants her children -- Cate, 26, Emma Claire, 10, and Jack, 8 -- to have an image of their father as ''an advocate for poverty, not for this current picture of him to be the only one they carry with them, as young people and as adults.''

''I have to prepare for the possibility if I die before they are grown,'' she said, of helping them ''function without an involved, engaged and admiring parent. So I need to create the picture for them that I want them to have.''...

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Elizabeth-Edwards.html

Needed to be said.

than this one, who has made her way through a Job-like series of events in her life.

I'm sure Mrs. Edwards would rather everyone stay the hell out of her private business. Some of you just lap up this True Confessions shit, I find it distasteful and Jerry Springer-ish. Why not just leave them alone?

Why are you posting in this thread?

I would not read the article because the topic of the article holds no interest whatsoever for me. However, I'm posting in this thread because I do have an opinion on the obsessive behavior of some DUers when it comes to people's lives.

This shouldn't be a topic, but it is, and I can express my disdain for it.

Don't like it? Then don't come to discussion forums, where someone is bound to disagree with you.

Have you ever fooled around? Have you ever cheated on your partner? Has he or she ever cheated on you? Have you ever had sexual thoughts about another person other than your spouse? Well, I need to know about it. I need to know how you FEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEL.

I pity Mrs. Edwards, but not because John Edwards got some strange. I pity Mrs. Edwards because of nosy, bored people who won't leave her alone.

Quite frankly, I have no idea why you've chosen to spew venom on someone who was kicking a thread for others
who might be interested to read. (That's how it generally works in the LBN thread.) Which as indicated by the 'K&R' was my intent. I'm amused to find someone who can disagree with a 'Kick & Recommend' post. There are those who are enraged at some
fairly trivial things.

But, spew if you must.

she agreed to the interview because there were some things she wanted to say publicly. But I understand your point that public scrutiny hasn't helped the Edwards family as they've gone through this private matter.

To me, the purpose is to get out that she is trying to get past this and put her life back together. She, generously, wants the kids to have a positive image of her husband, who might become the sole parent at some point. She is answering the questions likely because it will enable her to reappear publicly with the questions behind her. Posting it is important to people who want her out there as an advocate and those who personally care about her.

But, only JRE can determine how his kids see him. Cate will have all the experiences of her life and will have to meld this in. It likely will have an impact That Elizabeth did not divorce him, gives him a better chance to continue the relationship he has with the little kids and deal with this as the kids bring it up. This is very sad, but many families have dealt with this - though this is more public.

and boy am I glad that it never came down to him...

I am so sad that Edwards let us all down. I am especially sad for his children.

But I must thank those people who supported Obama from the beginning.

I do hope they can find other, perhaps less public, ways to continue the fight for the poor.

yet she was wrong in letting her husband stay in the race while keeping the affair a secret.

Had he come out clean and said it was behind him and it was now between the two of them, he may still have done as well as he did. But when she was diagnosed that her cancer had returned, yet, fighting for a better country was more important, she was not completely honest. Had he been our nominee when this broke out, we would have seen our chances to capture the White House, as well as more seats in Congress, evaporate. Is this what she meant by setting her priorities?

In these days both should have realized that this could not have stayed secret for long.

After all, many blame Clinton's affair for Gore having to haggle over the Florida chads. This would have hold here, too.

I hope that both of them can rebuild their lives... in privacy.

And, by the way, I contributed generously to him and was glad to meet him in person and to shake his hands, as I did in 2004, and to ask for his assurance that he would not drop... a day before he did.

Gosh, such grace.

I am in awe, Elizabeth... such strength, grace, poise, and intelligence.

I have to prepare for the possibility if I die before they are grown,'' she said, of helping them ''function without an involved, engaged and admiring parent. So I need to create the picture for them that I want them to have.''...

in other words John Edwards in not an involved, engaged or admiring father... Elizabeth feels she needs to bolster his image in ther minds before she dies...

tragic

what a tear-down of Edwards

that they would be losing Elizabeth, who is an involved, engaged and admiring parent. She may have not meant it as a reflection on him. Certainly her past statements about him did not portray him as a parent who was uninvolved, etc.

I'm sure she's wise enough to realize that even her younger children will see what is there regarding him, not what someone else wants them to believe but which isn't true. I think she is wants them to see the whole picture, not just the ugly recent events.

Children grow up conflicted all the time.. They can "love" their dad, but HATE what he did to their Mom.. It's what keeps psychologists/psychiatrists buying boats, condos & fancy cars..

The fact that he did it while she was sick, only adds to the issues that those kids will live with their whole lives...

Which means they could be entirely different strings of thought. So, it is hard to know what she meant without having it in proper context.

From what I know of her, I seriously doubt she'd publicly slam John. She's far too gracious for that.

Good job!

not that JRE was not one himself.

I continue to be amazed at the strength that this woman shows us.

I think it would be hard to go through something like this. That family has been through so many stressful times, it is hard to understand everything until we walk in their shoes. I think she just wants people to understand that she is okay.

And I too am glad he didn't make it. But Pallin did and also seems to have had an affair. Which affair is/should get more scrutiny?
In my opinion neither, but hypocrisy always rankles.

break through until he admitted it. The Palin one has very little behind it and there is no proof - so it is better to leave it alone.