Can Cancer Close The Gravitas Gap?

The news that the Edwards campaign solicited cancer well-wishers for campaign funds shouldn't really be surprising. Why wouldn't they?

Not to be crass about it, but Mrs. Edwards' cancer has given her husband's campaign something of a boost. It's reflected in the latest polls in Iowa and New Hampshire; my guess is it's also visible in fundraising, particularly the Internet variety. It's certainly not a strategy anyone would choose to emulate, but it makes sense in Edwards' case — not because he was an unsympathetic person, but because he had a gravitas problem. And nothing gives you gravitas faster than what John Edwards is going through now.

The spike in John Edwards' numbers isn't about his wife, per se. People feel very strongly about spouses, but they don't vote accordingly. Betty Ford couldn't save Gerald Ford any more than Barbara Bush could save the first George from Bill Clinton and the headbanded harpy who wouldn't bake cookies.

It's the candidate that counts, but his choice of partner and what that relationship says about him are potentially important to the total vote count. Teresa Heinz Kerry didn't cost her husband the nomination, which tells you it wasn't spouse popularity that determined who got the delegates. On the other hand, she certainly didn't help him in the general, and the picture of him off windsurfing on vacation with his rich wife instead of answering the attacks against him did not improve his image.

So, too, the political question is not what you think of the way Elizabeth Edwards is facing her challenges, but whether it changes the way people see her husband and relate to his candidacy.

Does it have an impact?

How could it not?

The recurrence of Elizabeth Edwards' cancer brought her husband's candidacy more attention than it had received since it began. It's hard to think of anything else Edwards could have done that would have landed them on "60 Minutes" with Katie — and with more people watching than he's met in three years of campaigning.

But this sort of attention comes with real risk, not so much for Elizabeth Edwards — who already faces plenty — as for her husband.

The more sympathetic she is, the more vulnerable he is to being seen as the heavy.

John Edwards could have come across as an ambitious louse in this drama, the guy whose ambition won't be curtailed, even by the prospect of losing his wife. That's what plenty of people thought as soon as they heard her diagnosis and their decision, and they were prepared to be convinced. So what if they said she was the one pushing for him to stay in? What else would they say?

But that just isn't how it's playing out. Katie Couric did them a favor, in retrospect, by playing the part of the heavy in her much-watched interview, but the real stars of this show have been John and Elizabeth Edwards themselves. They've been doing exactly what they said they would: going forward with the campaign, being open and honest about her medical situation, always looking for the silver lining.

The latest is to use her story to warn women of the importance of regular mammograms, which she did not have. How could a woman as smart, insured and well-connected as Elizabeth Edwards, a senator's wife no less, with a history of late-in-life pregnancies, fertility treatment, etc., not have regular mammograms? Her husband, when asked that question, responded that his wife wasn't in the habit of putting herself first, which is probably what makes her so real to so many people. Getting a mammogram shouldn't be a function of where you put yourself in line, but for many women, unfortunately, it is.

Their decision to go forward notwithstanding Elizabeth's diagnosis invests the Edwards campaign — and the candidate in turn — with a seriousness that goes far beyond the exercise in ego that is at the core of most campaigns. If that's all that were involved here, the couple Katie Couric interviewed would have shut down the campaign in a heartbeat and gone home to spend time with each other and their children. This is a couple who lost a child. They have no illusions.

The reason they haven't gone home is because of how committed they are to electing John Edwards president. Knowing better than most just how precious family time is, they believe what they are doing is even more important. And if they believe that, how can you disagree?

Say what you will about him, but he hardly seems lacking in gravitas right now. It's a helluva way to do it, but cancer may have closed the gravitas gap for John Edwards.

To find out more about Susan Estrich and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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