The country asks: How should the Edwards live their lives?

Duncan is rightly outraged by the junky's pronouncement that the Edwards turned to politics instead of "God." Interestingly, though, I had a similar reaction to this morning's "analysis" of what Americans think of the Edwards decision to Go. On. With. Their. Lives.

Is Mr. Edwards now the presidential race’s real embodiment of hope in all its audacity, or a symbol of blind ambition? A new profile in courage or a standard-bearer for callous disregard?

Many Democrats, including local party leaders in states like Iowa and Ohio where early primaries and caucuses could help set the stage for the nomination, said their opinion of Mr. Edwards went up, but probably even more said that about Mrs. Edwards.

Some voters among dozens questioned around the nation said they thought Mr. Edwards’s candidacy would be weakened, either by the distractions of disease or the fear that he could be a distracted president with an ill — and perhaps dying — wife in the White House. Others predicted a surge as people rallied around their fight.

[...]

Julie Perry, who was visiting Denver on Friday from North Carolina, disagreed with the decision to carry on the campaign. She described it as “childish” and “an act of total denial.” But her husband, Charlie, said he thought it was courageous.

The couple are in post-retirement second careers, but have not lived in North Carolina long enough to have voted or not for Mr. Edwards, who served as senator from 1999 to 2005.

“The cancer is calling on them to do something different than what they’re doing,” said Ms. Perry, who described herself as an artist and an undecided Democrat. “For her to carry on and keep on in the face of it — I don’t find an act of courage at all.”

To be fair, I think most people are responding to the emotion of it, and the article does indicate that people's responses to it seemed to be affected by their own experience of living with terminal illness, or their loved one's experience. And even Ms. Perry probably does not have fecal matter in the brain cavity as Rush Limbaugh clearly does. But the tendency to put this into the context of the horse race that is the primaries is disturbing and that's ultimately where the article is going. Inevitable (to be honest, I thought about it following the Edwards' news conference, so I don't hold myself out as any paragon of virtue), but still disturbing. I'm sure a national poll on Edwards' chances in light of Elizabeth's health is in the offing.