This morning's Washington Post covered Elizabeth Edwards's recent appearance at the George Washington University to speak about the healthcare crisis at the behest of the Center for American Progress.
While acknowledging her own privilege to receive excellent care, Edwards focused on the dangers of the current system to people without millions of their own. Of John McCain's plan for healthcare reform she warned:
"Under McCain's health-care proposal, she argues, many employers would likely drop health insurance, prices would continue to skyrocket, insurers would replace doctors as the primary decision makers. And people like her -- and McCain -- couldn't even get insurance because of their "preexisting conditions."
She also criticized Barack Obama for failing to promise to cover every American in his proposed plan.
Notably, Edwards was not wearing her wedding band, something folks were looking for after John Edwards's admission of an affair last summer. She neither referenced the scandal, nor accepted any interview questions about it or anything else, sticking instead to the topic at hand.
As baffling as political wives can sometimes be, I have to admit Elizabeth Edwards has all of my respect. What she is or isn't forgiving or forgetting is her business. She's leaving it at home. But neither is she shunning the public, which she could do with more than understanding and sympathy from everyone who knows her story. Instead she is spending what is undoubtedly precious time serving the public by sharing her knowledge and experience.
Hats off to you Elizabeth. You're a class act.
See also:
The Candidates on Healthcare
