Report: Edwards' wife in anguish after affair
Elizabeth Edwards' cancer diagnosis forced her to decide quickly whether she would leave her husband after he confessed to having an affair, her brother and a friend told People magazine. "She couldn't say, 'Well, maybe we'll work through this for years, or maybe we should separate for two years,'" said Hargrave McElroy, a friend, said in the Aug. 25 issue.
Edwards, a two-time Democratic presidential candidate, admitted last week to having an affair in 2006 with filmmaker Rielle Hunter. He said he told Elizabeth about his infidelity in 2006.
"There was anguish -- excruciating anguish -- for her in dealing with this," McElroy said. "But at one point she had to make a choice: Do I kick him out, or do we have a 30-year marriage that can be rebuilt."
Edwards brother, Jay Anania, told People that his sister was focused on her children -- Jack, 8; Emma Claire, 10, and Cate, 26. When he reached her the day after Edwards admitted publicly to the affair, he said Elizabeth asked him to call later because she was reading with Jack. He said, "The world is whizzing around her and she's cool as a cucumber, saying, 'Jack just started, can I call you back?' "
CINDY MCCAIN SUSTAINS MINOR HAND SPRAIN
Republican John McCain's wife, Cindy, was treated for a "minor sprain" after someone at an event in Michigan shook her hand firmly. Later, she stood beside her husband wearing a soft cast on her right arm. "I'm absolutely fine," she said.
FIGURE IN ABRAMOFF CASE HELPING MCCAIN
A political strategist tied to the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal is helping raise money for John McCain, urging his fellow Georgia Republicans to attend a fundraiser for the presidential candidate in Atlanta.
Ralph Reed, former director of the Christian Coalition, said he had agreed to be on McCain's "Victory 2008 Team" in an e-mail that solicited donations on McCain's behalf. The Republican National Committee is hosting the fundraiser in Atlanta on Aug. 18.
A House panel in 2006 concluded that Reed interceded with the Bush White House to help some of Abramoff's clients. His public relations firm also received $4.2 million from Abramoff.
MANY VOTERS STILL UP FOR GRABS, POLL SAYS
For all the passion this year's presidential campaign has stirred, more than four in 10 voters are still up for grabs. Forty-three percent of registered voters have not made final decisions on whom to support, said a Associated Press-Ipsos poll.
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While the focus was on Vice President Kamala Harris in their first media interview of the presidential campaign, Walz was asked if voters could take him at his word.
