You asked for it, Elizabeth

Edwards’ professed desire for candor is such she deserves nothing but candor in return. I am afraid she is crazy if she thinks, as she says she does, that when the American people saw her with John on the campaign trail they thought they looked such a happy and devoted couple. Most people I know thought that Elizabeth looked like an overbearing chief of staff and were mystified that her interruptions were tolerated by someone as clearly in love with himself as John. There was deep public sympathy over the tragedy of the death of their son Wade and later for her brave, unflinching confrontation with a deadly disease, but also bewilderment that she could use this precious time left with her kids to promote her husband’s ego-fueled, phony-populist lurch for the White House.

Perhaps the worst thing about the Oprah interview was that it was happening at all. In no other culture in the world can I imagine the flayed, dishonored husband hanging around in the kitchen to tell the person who has just teased out of his wife a replay of his shame that no, he hadn’t asked Elizabeth to change one word of what she had written. If he is not lying (again) it’s tragic he did not do so, at least for the sake of their kids.