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I've got a real bad feeling about this. As you may know, John Edwards was supposed to be here in NYC tomorrow night. I was planning to shoot video of the event. Now the New York Times is reporting that John has called a press conference tomorrow in Chapel Hill, NC to discuss his wife's health.
John Edwards to Discuss Wife's Health
Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards accompanied his wife, Elizabeth, who has been treated for breast cancer, on a doctor's visit Wednesday. His campaign said they would hold a news conference in their hometown Thursday to discuss her health.
Campaign officials refused to answer any questions about what the Edwardses learned at the doctor's appointment or how it might affect his candidacy. Edwards had cut short a trip to Iowa Tuesday night to be with his wife Wednesday but still attended a barbecue fundraiser later in the evening in their hometown of Chapel Hill, N.C.
The campaign had said that Mrs. Edwards, 57, had a follow-up appointment to a routine test she had Monday. The campaign explained that she had similar follow-ups in the past but they always resulted in a clean bill of health.
The campaign refused to elaborate Wednesday. Family friends said Wednesday night that they didn't know of any new complications to her health.
You don't start canceling events and holding noontime pressers to tell the world that your wife is perfectly healthy and that you are going to soldier on. Rumor has it that he's out.
And that's a damn shame. My thoughts are with Elizabeth, John and their family.
UPDATE: Edwards to Suspend Campaign
John Edwards is suspending his campaign for President, and may drop out completely, because his wife has suffered a recurrence of the cancer that sickened her in 2004, when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, an Edwards friend told The Politico.
"At a minimum he's going to suspend" the campaign, the source said. "Nobody knows precisely how serious her recurrence is. It'll be another couple of days before there's complete clarity."
"For him right now he has one priority which is her health and the security of the two young children," said the friend.
As for the campaign, "You don't shut this machine off completely, but everything will go on hold."
Damn.
UPDATE 2: The Politico is full of it.
John Edwards just now, "The campaign goes on. There will be no change whatsoever."
Hot Damn.
UPDATE 3: Ben Smith Apologizes.
Getting It Wrong
A single, confident source close to John Edwards told me this morning that Edwards was "suspending his campaign," and I posted it to the blog at 11:06 this morning.
My source, and I, were wrong.
The source, whose anonymity I agreed to respect, spoke of the kind of grim prognosis Elizabeth Edwards herself just described hearing before a second round of tests came back. I trusted the source, somebody I've known for several years, and who has always been reliable.
And with less than an hour before Edwards was to announce, I unwisely wrote the item without getting a second source.
When the campaign pushed back harder than I'd expected, I added that information to the original item, but that doesn't undo the damage.
My apologies to our readers for passing on bad information.
Good on you, Ben.
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