The Female Touch

The most interesting person in the presidential race right now is a woman, and it isn't Hillary Clinton.

John Edwards remains a distant third on the Democratic side and, even with his poverty tour, seems to be getting little traction. It's his wife, Elizabeth, who is drawing most of the media attention in an attempt to help her husband.

That was sadly true a few months ago, when the couple revealed that Elizabeth's cancer had returned in advanced form. There was an outpouring of public sympathy for this brave woman who refused to quit the campaign trail over a mere life-threatening disease.

But now Elizabeth seems to be her husband's attack dog, saying things that the former senator can't say or feels it would be too risky to say. It was Elizabeth who called "Hardball" and ripped Ann Coulter for ridiculing John in personal terms. It was Elizabeth who came out for gay marriage. And now it's Elizabeth taking a jab at Hillary.

It's almost as if she's the vice-presidential running mate, playing a counterpunching role while John Edwards stays on the high road. But, well, isn't there something strange in a spouse--even an accomplished lawyer--assuming this tougher posture?

In a Salon interview this week, Elizabeth said that Hillary "wants to be commander in chief. But she's just not as vocal a women's advocate as I want to see. John is. And then she says, or maybe her supporters say, 'Support me because I'm a woman,' and I want to say to her, 'Well, then support me because I'm a woman.' . . . Same with Senator Obama -- I've yet to hear a rationale."

Is that Elizabeth unplugged, or is she following a script drawn up by John and his handlers?

Slate's John Dickerson marvels at EE's role:

"I think John Edwards just made an ad about his wife's cancer, but I'm not sure. In his latest New Hampshire spot, the gutsy and appealing Elizabeth Edwards talks about her husband's toughness. It's a sign of how the gender stereotypes are being challenged in this election that Hillary Clinton's campaign is using her husband to soften her image, and John Edwards is using his wife to toughen his . . .

"The ad ends with this line: 'It's unbelievably important that in our president we have someone who can stare the worst in the face and not blink.'

"What is Elizabeth Edwards talking about? She's clearly referring to something in her husband's past, but what? It is a measure of the toughness of John Edwards' life that more than once, he has had to 'stare the worst in the face.' Elizabeth Edwards could be talking about their teenage son's death in a car crash in 1996 or her cancer . . .

"It seems necessary that we have an emotional reaction to Elizabeth Edwards' illness and the shared pain of the loss of their son to receive the message about her husband's private strength. Otherwise it's just a wife saying nice things about her husband."