Perspective on Her Side, Mrs. Edwards Enters Fray

New York Times:

Mrs. Edwards has also become a free operator on behalf of her husband of 29 years, a development that her friends suggest reflects the clarity and perspective that come from her cancer diagnosis, and her increasingly confident political instincts as she advises Mr. Edwards, a North Carolina Democrat, in his second White House bid.

When Mrs. Edwards called in to a television talk show this week to confront the conservative commentator Ann Coulter who had attacked Mr. Edwards this year, it was a decision that Mrs. Edwards said she made impulsively and on her own. The resulting dramatic four minutes of television created a surge of attention that at least momentarily electrified her husband’s campaign, winning applause from the left and apparently spiking contributions in the critical final days of this second-quarter fund-raising period....She argued vigorously with her husband over details of his signature health care plan — before an audience of transfixed campaign aides. (He won that argument, an aide said.)...

Her stamina on the campaign trail appears steady, and she and her husband frequently say that her cancer has proved no encumbrance on her daily life. Mrs. Edwards shows no visible manifestations of the disease — her hair is full, her skin color robust, and she bustles with energy. She often carries her own bags, aides say, and she can put in the standard 16-hour day expected from anyone in the business of running for president. She takes a little yellow pill once a day, oral chemotherapy, and visits a doctor’s office for treatment about once a month.