Fading Elizabeth Edwards Draws Media Sympathy, Support, and Controversy

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Elizabeth Edwards has halted her cancer treatment, following advice from doctors that further procedures would be "unproductive." A family friend has told the Associated Press that doctors predict Edwards has only weeks to live.

"You all know that I have been sustained throughout my life by three saving graces--my family, my friends, and a faith in the power of resilience and hope," she said in a statement on her Facebook page. "These graces have carried me through difficult times and they have brought more joy to the good times than I ever could have imagined."

In the last two years, her public battle with cancer has coincided with the tabloid drama of her husband's infidelity and his fathering of a child with mistress Rielle Hunter. While Edwards's family now gathers at her North Carolina home, media observers share thoughts and offer support for the 61-year-old:

• My Heart Goes Out to Her, writes Mistermix at Balloon Juice:
  

After all the pain, the worry, the roller coaster of possibility and disappointment, it comes to this. The acknowledgement of the inevitable is in some ways more painful than the inevitable itself, because it's the death of hope. Before, plans could be made for months and maybe even years. Now, it's days, perhaps a week, and the only hope is that the end will not be as awful as everyone knows it can be.

• She's Been Strong Until the End, writes Margaret Carlson at The Daily Beast:

Like Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Edwards suffered publicly for her philandering husband and suffered again for an unforgiving press corps that thought she should have kept her dog on the porch. Why didn't Edwards stop her husband from running knowing that if he won the nomination and word of his affair came out, he and the Democrats would be toast? What's wrong with her? What's wrong with us? Elizabeth Edwards lived the hand she was dealt with unimaginable grace and humor. She did what was best for her and her family, now gathered around her.

• She Got a Raw Deal  "Many saw her miscast but driven support of her husband's political career as his greatest asset in his Senate and presidential campaigns that followed," writes Bonnie Goldstein at Politics Daily: "Despite her loyal backing, she was the victim of humiliating public unfaithfulness while she was also experiencing prolonged cancer treatment."
  

• This Is Just Sad, writes Ernie Smith at Short Form Blog, in an unusually long post:

Now she's going to die soon? How unkind is this world? The fact that she has a single positive bone left in her body, let alone the sincere heart shown here, is amazing. And John Edwards is a crappy human being who doesn't deserve any of the success he's had. (Sorry, we were angry. And now we're very sad. We have a lot of respect for Eliza­beth Edwards. You should too.)

• She Forgot to Mention Something, writes Ann Althouse: "She did not apologize to us for participating in the deceit perpetrated by John Edwards, which skewed the 2008 Democratic primaries."

• This Statement Looks Suspiciously Atheistic  Donald Douglas at American Power focuses on her remark that she was sustained by "my family, my friends, and a faith in the power of resilience and hope." He doesn't see the deity that would be present if he made the same statement.
  

Clearly Elizabeth Edwards wants to put her faith in something, be it hope or strength or anything. But not God. I wonder if it's just bitterness ... At her death bed and giving what most folks are calling a final goodbye, Elizabeth Edwards couldn't find it somewhere down deep to ask for His blessings as she prepares for the hereafter? I guess that nihilism I’ve been discussing reaches up higher into the hard-left precincts than I thought.

• Back Off  "It seems to me," counters Kathy Kattenburg at The Moderate Voice, responding to Douglas's post, "that telling a woman dying of cancer that she is a 'nihilist' because instead of saying she has been sustained by family, friends, and faith in God, she says she has been sustained by family, friends, and “a faith in the power of resilience and hope,' is in itself an implicit admission that you know nothing about the power of religious faith. If religious belief," she continues, "is not at its core about compassion and empathy and love--ANY religious belief--then it's not really about anything at all--at least, not anything that truly matters."

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