Good luck to her, anyway. Um, this may be an insensitive thing to worry about, and I feel weird bringing it up, but say Edwards wins. Are there governance implications from the strong possibility that his wife will die while he's in office? (I'm thinking if he's the candidate, he's going to need a VP that people would accept as a co-President.)

Incapacitated by grief? The First Lady isn't exactly a Constitutional position. The potential VP would have to be a more benevolent Cheney, someone quietly running things without an actual transfer, or even co- President.

You mean he's going to become completely unglued when she dies? I'd bet any amount of money and the lives of my kids that doesn't happen to that sort of personality. Later perhaps, but not while there's work to through oneself into and people counting on him.

Gak! "throw"

Well, grief, being with her in her final illness (I feel like such a horrible ghoul. Maybe there isn't any way to talk about this decently), it seems as though he'd be likely to be unavailable to do his job with full attention for at least a couple of months in there.

But yeah, exactly what you said about the benevolent Cheney -- you'd want a VP ready and involved to pick up the load when Edwards couldn't manage it.

Cross-posted with 3: I didn't mean that, exactly, but he'd have to be there with her while she was dying -- that's what people do.

This may be ghoulish of me, too, but I can't help but be glad that Cate Edwards seems so smart and poised. If something did happen to Elizabeth Edwards while he was in office, I'd think he'd need someone to step in and do some of the First Ladyish duties for a while, if only to comfort the nation. I can see her stepping up in a way that I couldn't imagine, say, the Bush twins or even Chelsea Clinton when her dad was in office (not because I don't respect Chelsea but because she was younger when her father was president).

>The potential VP would have to be a more benevolent Cheney, someone quietly running things without an actual transfer, or even co- President.

Al Gore would do.

6: Or she could be with him, at the White House. The resources are there if they wish to avail themselves.

I can't speak for them or how they should handle it but I've seen a fair bit of dying by now, and IMX daily life and work still mostly gets done (with some accommodations), and especially so by the sort of personalities who get rich or powerful.

Eh, I suppose so. I may have been oversold on the demands of the presidency as something that you really couldn't do properly while distracted. On the other hand, the current nincompoop plays video games and takes naps during his 'work' day, so who's to say that distraction is necessarily fatal.

8: Or, say, Barack Obama.

The cursed Iranians will launch their sneak attack during President Edwards darkest moment of extreme grief. Only VP Jack Bauer can save us. (hat tip to Tom Clancy).

I stopped reading those sometime in the 90s. Is Jack Ryan Pope yet?

13. Yes, the College of Cardinals waived the ordination requirement, just for him. Then Ryan combined the two offices, Pope and President, the way JFK was supposed to.

He's not just Pope, he's Space Pope.

There's precedent in place for a President who is incapacitated by medical issues (Bush I when he was having surgery, for instance, and Danny Boy was in charge for a few hours) such that I think this could be handled neatly and cleanly if it had to be. It would have to be a trusted personality, but then, that's what elections are supposed to be for.

As for now, I'm in control here, on Unfogged, pending the return of Ogged from swim practice and in close touch with him. If something came up, I would check with him, of course.

16 is great, and I hope you looked up the Haig quote, rather than being able to quote it from memory.

3: My first thought was that I'd become completely unglued if my wife died. But then again, I'm not particularly well glued together to begin with. BioH is probably right that these type A personalities respond differently.

Do you think W spends all day commenting pseudonymously at like Little Green Footballs, or something?

18. Doesn't he comment as "Al" on Kevin Drum's site?

We know he's not O.G. because "Opinionated" has a lot of vowels in it I'm not sure he could manage.

"(hat tip to Tom Clancy)."

I recently tried to read Clancy for the first time.

I put it down in disgust after reading 10 too many Right-wing bullshit speeches coming from Jack Ryan.

guesstimates about EE's survival are just that -- guesses. she's got a lot going in her favor -- it was caught early and small, she has good care, she is otherwise healthy, she has a lot of drive and many reasons to live. even if she wasn't so obviously interested in seeing a president promoting the values of her husband, she also has some young kids she cares about enormously.

should the worst happen -- it is worth remembering that even when a patient becomes terminal [little time to live], they are STILL ALIVE, still doing ordinary living things to the extent they can. unless they need an awful lot of home care and the only way to provide it is for a family member to do nursing duty, families are usually not on a 24/7 death watch during that period of time, at least in my experience.

right up until near the end with his brain cancer, my young nephew played and chattered and watched TV and sat down for dinner with his family every day; his brothers kept going to school, his dad kept working. my dad was joking with us not long before he took a nap from which he didn't awaken; he loved nothing better than some time with family, but hated the idea of everyone sitting around thinking of him dying. [and we all knew he would die, very soon.] my best friend's mom insisted that normal life go on as she was dying at home, so her then-just-out-of-high school kids were at their summer jobs when that moment came.

every president has things come up that are distracting. i'd expect someone like edwards to have a great team, able to keep things going even if he is spending fewer hours on the job for a while.
he won't be spending, for example, a full month clearing brush in texas or something. or every weekend at camp david or kennebunkport. or afternoons taking naps.

Kathy, I'm really sorry to hear the story of your nephew. It sounds like you guys handled things well, but I can only imagine how rough that was.

I must be the most cynical person in the world because I fully expect the media to have a bunch of "Is John Edwards ignoring his job by spending time with EE" stories when they didn't have "Is Bush ignoring his job by clearing brush" stories, should he become president.

God, I hate the media more every single day.

"On the other hand, the current nincompoop plays video games and takes naps during his 'work' day, so who's to say that distraction is necessarily fatal."

The current nincompoop, by implication.

Any president could experience the heart-wrenching death of a loved one while in office; the only difference is that the Edwards are in a position to anticipate it.

Eh, not that the press won't make this an issue, but Reagan's age and Cheney's heart problems didn't keep them from getting elected.

thanks, rob -- it was really hard, and is much on my mind because my nephew was in a coma that last long week, and that was exactly 5 years ago.

alexander was only 12 when he died, and he put up a hell of a fight against his disease for almost 3 years. there were some horrible, horrible times -- but you know what? he was a happy, smart, mischevious, loving kid, and he pretty much stayed that way through the entire thing. at his funeral, his buddhist minister talked about alexander deciding, "i want to live! i want to really live the life i have." i talked about how sweet and fun he was, and that even when he couldn't really remember who most people were, he be busy playing and suddenly call out to family members, "i love you!" that's who he was.

EE is much more than a cancer victim with an uncertain prognosis. she's got a lot of living left to do, and JE is certainly in a good position to know and deal with what might be coming. i say, all power to them. and cala is absolutely right -- could happen to anyone, but the edwardses are in a position to anticipate it.