The Health of a Candidate's Wife....The Challenge

[Rockholm]

The Edwards family is certainly a profile in courage. Her strength is surely to be a guiding light to the millions of Americans that have cancer and it is my hope that her diagnosis and disclosure will encourage more screening, more research and more compassion.

One other candidate running for president is Willard "Mitt" Romney. As many of us in Massachusetts know, his wife Ann has MS. Her health was much better in Utah, when they returned home to "rescue" the 2002 Olympics. Sadly, one option that could help improve Ann's health and the health of the many with MS is off limits to republics. Stem-cell research. Amazing. It would seem to me that if there was technology out there that could potentially save the life of "my sweetheart" I would be going gangbusters to find a cure, so that I would not have to see her deteriorate and die.

The cynical side of me thinks it is only a matter of time until Romney, now trumped by Edwards in the middle America soccer mom sympathy vote, will have to trot Ann out.

The optimistic side of me wants more valuable research in finding life extending and life enhancing treatments and to finding a cure for life threatening illnesses.

[Mass]

1. Romney has had Ann campaigning in the frontlines from weeks now, from

having her tout the fact he was the only first tier candidate in the Republican Party who did not divorce to talking about MS and how it affected her.

I certainly have seen her a lot more on TV these last two months than I have during the last 4 years here in MA. However, I thought that Romney supported stem-cell research, and that he was using his wife's disease as the reason why he was supporting it.

[Rockholm]

2. I think he flipped on that too.

He was for it at one time, just like everything else.