Of Pain and Campaigns

"It's about surviving, I knew that," John says. "But I was concerned whether some of the things she was doing were helping her or hurting."

She emerged slowly. The birth of two more children, Emma Claire (now 8) and Jack (now 6), helped. John ran for the Senate and won. Cate graduated and went off to Princeton. And then came the presidential campaign, which Elizabeth threw herself into.

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The current book tour is about Elizabeth's life, not her husband's. It wasn't timed or written for political purposes -- even the suggestion of that seems to take her aback -- but given that her husband is clearly planning to run in 2008, it does provide a public platform to reacquaint America with the Edwards name and values.

A family appearance (John, Elizabeth and Cate) on Oprah Winfrey's show last week helped bump her book temporarily to No. 2 on Amazon.com. And she confirms what her husband has said; she wants him to run.

"I have tremendous confidence in him," she says, "because I know this man, and I know how principled he is."

Charlie Cook, a political columnist for National Journal, sees John Edwards as the front-runner against Hillary Clinton in the race for the nomination: "He came out of 2004 about as unscathed as is possible for a nominee."

In her book, Edwards writes about the frustration felt in their Boston hotel room on election night, when the pattern of returns changed and her husband was pressed to speak to the mobs of supporters in Copley Square. He didn't want to say anything that made it easier for Bush to declare victory.

From the bedroom, exhausted, Elizabeth -- who had been campaigning with a possible breast cancer diagnosis hanging over her head for nearly two weeks and who had an appointment for a biopsy the next day -- called out to her husband. "We've waited this long; we can wait a little bit longer," she said.

It's the line he used.

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John, Elizabeth says, is the one who took the lead when it came to figuring out her treatment. He took care of her. Of course, she also took care of him.