John Kerry’s brand of Boston diplomacy pays off

[karynnj]

29. So, I should allow you to cite something she said as Gospel truth because she died?

Slander implies stating untrue things - what is untrue? Saying a political wife would color the truth for her (his) spouse is not really earth shaking. For a more cynical example, you might remember her contrasting her "staying home" with Jack and Emma Claire to HRC not staying home when Chelsea was young - ignoring SHE worked when Cate and Wade were young - in a sneaky attempt - that she ended up being called on - to allude to Bill's fidelity problem.

Mrs. Edwards, wife of John, who is the candidate, has been over some of this terrain regarding Mrs. Clinton before. Last fall, she told a forum sponsored by Ladies Home Journal that she had some things in common with Mrs. Clinton — they both went to law school and both married lawyers — but that they then made different choices.

“I think my choices have made me happier,” Mrs. Edwards was quoted as saying. “I think I’m more joyful than she is.”

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/17/elizabeth-edwards/

As this article mentioned, she did try to walk this back --- after it ignited a fire storm. (This was NOT surprising to anyone who ever read parenting boards and remembered the unnecessary fight between stay at home and career women.) Given that the Clinton's daughter was (and is) a wonderful person who obviously had good parenting, this was seen by many as bringing up the turbulent Clinton marriage. Note also the date. Elizabeth, at that point, knew about Hunter. Yet she was willing to contrast her perfect marriage/family against what she implied was the less happy Clinton version.

Given that example, do you REALLY want to argue that Elizabeth Edwards was unlikely to say something that was not true - that could help her husband?

Her comments on that were COMPLETELY because there were a large number of left leaning Democrats who were angry that Kerry did not contest 2004. That seems STILL to be the case given that it was alluded to here on a thread about work he has just done as SoS.

What is clear about both Edwards is that they were skilled at reinventing who John Edwards was. In 2004, he was near the right most candidate. In 2008, there was no opening on the right given where HRC was -- so suddenly he had a platform more like Kerry 2004 or Dean 2004 then Edwards 2004. His Senate record was similar to that of Evan Bayh. He voted for the bankruptcy bill -- and given that Elizabeth had been a bankruptcy lawyer, he can't say he did not understand how bad that bill was.

Elizabeth was a great advocate - for her husband and later for health care, but she was a very complex person. Her cancer and her death were tragic - especially as she had to face both without the love of her life really there for her.