Among the revelations in Elizabeth Edwards' new memoir, "Resilience" is how she took the news that her husband had been having an affair with Rielle Hunter:
"I cried and screamed, I went to the bathroom and threw up."
Aside from the personal anguish that the affair had on Mrs. Edwards and her family, she also believes that her husband had no business seeking higher office with that kind of skeleton hiding in the closet.
"He should not have run," she wrote.
Back in the early days of the presidential primary, I had the chance to attend one of Mrs. Edwards' speaking engagements in Florida. Before a crowd of around 100 people assembled at a local bookstore, Edwards was smart, funny, and altogether engaging. Her passion for politics, and for her husband were quite apparent. I asked her how she was feeling about John's chances in the upcoming Iowa caucuses, and she didn't hesitate. "We're feeling very confident."
Given all that Mrs. Edwards has been through over the past few years, it's hard to imagine the extent of the blow that hearing of her husband's affair must have entailed. And I'm still left with the same feeling I had after the bookstore event was over. It's too bad she wasn't the candidate instead of John.
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