Tuesday, Dec 7, 2010 18:46 ET
Elizabeth Edwards didn't deserve it
She inspired us, even as we watched her stumble
By Joan Walsh
http://www.salon.com/news/elizabeth_edwards/index.html?story=/opinion/walsh/2010/12/07/joan_walsh_elizabeth_edwardsIn this March 26, 2007 file photo, Elizabeth Edwards greets audience members after arriving for a speech in Cleveland. She didn't deserve it. Any of it. But "deserve" is a concept humans invented to pretend life is fair, even when it isn't; even "fair" is one of our fairy tales.
Elizabeth Edwards, dead at 61, didn't deserve to bury her teenage son Wade, or to develop breast cancer after giving birth to two children at 48 and 50. She didn't deserve to have her husband flagrantly cheat on her, fathering a child (he denied for a time) with another woman, and she certainly didn't deserve to be transformed from the conscience of her family -- how many people back in the day thought the wrong Edwards was on the ballot? -- to being the harpy blamed for encouraging her husband's admittedly crazy decision to run for president even after she learned about his tacky, solipsistic affair (thanks, "Game Change!").
I admired Elizabeth Edwards enormously, even after I figured out she wasn't a saint. I watched her use her elbows to slam Hillary Clinton in a long interview with me back in July 2007 that made national news (especially after Matt Drudge distorted what she said with the irresistible headline: "Gender Bender: Wife Edwards Says Hillary 'Behaving Like a Man'").
Of course, she didn't say that, but what she said about Clinton was pretty rough. She empathized with her as a female trailblazer -- both women were lawyers -- but accused Clinton of being a less than adequate advocate for women, because she was intent on seeming "tough." Here's the whole quote:
"When I was a lawyer, I was the first female lawyer many people had ever seen. I had an obligation to my client to do the work right, but I thought constantly about my obligation to the women who came after me. If I didn't do a good job, they wouldn't get a chance to sit where I'm sitting. I think one of the things that make me so completely comfortable with is that keeping that door open to women is actually more a policy of John's than Hillary's."