Michael Jackson TalkRadio Content

er cancer is back," painful words which signified the entrance to unchartered territory in the race for the presidency. They have made the headlines in print and on TV. John Edwards stood beside his wife of 31 years and announced that Elizabeth Edwards, whose cancer was first diagnosed in 2004, has seen it advance. No longer does she face curable breast cancer, but rather it has spread to her bone; indicating that it is no longer curable. The cancer is treatable and many patients in similar circumstances have lived a full life for many years, undergoing treatment. They are a couple with courage. They've fought tragedy in the past. When their oldest son was killed in a car accident, they survived with strength and dignity and the candidate went on to become the 2004 Democratic Vice Presidential choice. Mr. Edwards has insisted that the campaign would continue. Standing beside her in their home city, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Edwards said that when a trauma of this magnitude strikes ... "you have a choice - you can go and cower in the corner or you can go out there and be tough." They have already returned to the exhaustive campaigning of a presidential race. The most recent polls for the Democrats show Mrs. Clinton in the lead with 37% of registered Democrats favoring her, followed by Sen. Obama with 22% backing. 14%per cent are for the former Vice President, who has not even announced his candidacy, Al Gore. And then comes Mr. Edwards with 12%. If they can stay the course, I believe that John and Elizabeth will make major advances. As a practical matter, for starters, their joint appearance and the way in which they conducted themselves guarantees the Edwards' campaign will receive far more attention in the coming weeks than it has of late. Maybe he will no longer be laboring in the shadows of Sen. Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton. Andrew Sullivan, a conservative political commentator with HIV, wrote the following on his blog, "What I saw in this press conference was the reality of family values - not the rhetoric, not the divisiveness, not the politics, just the reality of an actual family dealing with real issues." That says it in a few words. Of course disease knows no party lines. White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, who had surgery in 2005 for colon cancer, has recently announced a return of his problem. More tomorrow,