November 04, 2004

• Could God's will be any more obvious?
• That's a fucking one-two kick in the chops from fate. Not that it would be any better if the election had flipped the other way. She caught it early, so the odds are in her favor. And her husband's Senate term is ending, so they can focus on the next eighteen months.
• fuyugare, and what is so obviously God's will? I have a hard time believing that God, sits in heaven and strikes people with breast cancer.
• Best wishes to Elizabeth; my prayers are with her and here's hoping they reach the loving compassionate god that gives comfort to most people of faith, instead of the one who guides fuyugare.
• when it rains...
• Could God's will be any more obvious? Won't these liberals ever learn? Don't mess with Texas.
• oh, fuck. Poor woman. It can be beat, I've got friends who survived and thrived. Best wishes to her and her husband. I'm assuming fuyugare is employing gallows humor - please don't tell me if I'm wrong.
• I'm assuming fuyugare is employing gallows humor - please don't tell me if I'm wrong. If that's the case, my apologies to fuyugare. My sense of humor has been on vacation since around 8pm Nov. 2.
• Imagine the horrible mess for Kerry/Edwards if (alternate history time...) this had come to pass immediately after Bush/Cheney ceded the election in the face of a loss in Ohio. If Edwards then stepped down to support his wife, by succession his VP seat should pass to the Speaker of the House. A Republican. Is there a mechanism for replacing a VP candidate after the election, but before the Electoral College takes action? Is there precedent?
• Is there a mechanism for replacing a VP candidate after the election, but before the Electoral College takes action? Is there precedent? The closest example I can think of is Spiro Agnew but I don't think I'm right, as far as the VP-elect timing goes. I imagine changing VP candidates from Edwards to another Demo would cause a stir if there was a process that would bump up a Repub. Interesting question.
• talk about a bad day. good thoughts go out to elizabeth and her family!
• Here's hoping the lady makes a splendid, speedy recovery.
• (goetter's back! yay!)
• hehe, hehe. you said "breast".
• Goetter, the succession technically applies to who will become President should the office become vacated. Because he was a fairly obvious choice, Nixon selected Ford to be VP after Agnew resigned, but I understand that the President has fairly broad authority to nominate whoever he wishes. I don't know exactly how it would play out between the election and inauguration. I'd suspect that the top of the ticket would recommend to his party who to tell the electors to fill in for VP, but that's just speculation.
• succession technically applies to who will become President [slap forehead] Right you are. teh_bone: my return timing is teh sux0r
• It would be interesting, since the electoral college votes for pres and vp separately.
• Best wishes to the Edwardseses. welcome back goetter! *sings* Welcome baaaaaack . . . your dreams were your . . ticket ooouuut . . . Welcome back (berwowww) to that same ol' place that you laughed about . . .
• Democrat John Edwards is suspending his campaign for the presidency, and may drop out completely, because his wife has suffered a recurrence of the cancer that sickened her in 2004, when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, sources said Thursday. Sad news. I wish the best for her, and their family.
• Best of luck. Jeez, the guy is starting to look like a one-man Kennedy clan...
• Man, cancer has terrible timing.
• Hmm. SMT's link now says "His wife's cancer has returned, but former North Carolina senator John Edwards says he'll continue his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination."
• You're correct, Mickey. It appears that Edwards will continue his bid for the White House.
• This sucks. I'm waiting for the snark about how he's exploiting the sympathy for his wife. Surely I'll find it on FOX News. Or maybe a quick trip to MeFi...
• I have even less sympathetic thoughts than that, HW, but I won't dirty MoFi with them.
• Sounds to me like she doesn't want him to quit. In light of that, it's interesting that they've made a big, public deal about the whole thing when essentially nothing's changed on his part. I can see how it looks like he's exploiting the sympathy...
• I don't blame him for continuing, really. When they're saying that it's not curable but treatable and she could still have several years of life left, well...depending on the prognosis, I'd seriously consider continuing as well.
• The only thing sympathy for his wife's illness will shield him from are bullshit personal attacks about things that have no bearing on his ability to govern. His opponents will be afraid to hit him below the belt, and you know what? They fucking well ought to feel that way anyway, sick wife or no.
• Very good points, MCT.
• Yeah, cancer is terrible, and having such a prominent person with incurable cancer has a (small) chance of focusing attention on the poor state of health care in the US, but health care issues are not at the top of the presidential agenda. The problems that our next president should solve are: (1) how to end the Iraq war, (2) how to end our addiction to oil, (3) what to do about global warming, and (4) how to stop and reverse the decline of America's status worldwide. Everything else is a distraction in 2008. Of course, we all know that the actual deciding factor for the election will be god, gays, foetuses and guns, yet again. The cancer in American politics is incurable.
• I have to think that he and his wife decided that he would continue his bid for the presidency together. I'm not sure that's the best decision since I don't think he stands a chance of winning, so I just hope that it will give them some exciting moments to share.
• This is my brain on chemo: My breast cancer treatment left me in a mental fog. As more of us survive cancer, will our post-chemo problems spawn a new branch of medicine?
• It's hard for me to tell if I have lingering "chemo brain" or not. I was easily distracted before I had it. I know that the increased joint pain never went away, and neither did the weight gain. (eighteen months after the last treatment!)
• Oops. Edwards admits affair with another woman while his wife was battling cancer. Denies that the child is his...
• Not to be a pissant or anything, but isn't the guy just an ordinary citizen now? Meaning that this is none of our business? Not that it would be our business if the guy was in office either, really...
• (Which isn't directed at you, smt.)
• Oddsmakers had him 18:1 for veep. That should change.
• Glad to see that Paris Hilton is ahead of Wes Clark.
• CNN is keeping it all classy with this great picture
• OK, from now on, let's just all take it as read that every single elected official is screwing around. It's just easier that way.
• Um, just for clarity - no-one actually battles cancer. You don't have a fucking choice. You do what the doctors tell you and make the most of it. If making the odd joke and just cracking on with the shit storm makes it 'battling', well, I don't know what to say. No-one 'battles' a cold, or piles or a heart condition or eczema. I hate that aura of bravery cancer patients are given. I didn't battle anything. I shat myself then got on with it. Sure it's bad, but I bet most patients don't see themselves as heroic. they'd rather not have it in the first place. Rant over.
• Monkeyfilter: I shat myself then got on with it. That's -- that's beautiful, man...
• I always say, "All I did was lie there and not die."