That’s Fromage Rapide to you…
April 1, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
Elizabeth Edwards for President
By FRANK RICH
ELIZABETH EDWARDS’S choice to stay in the political arena despite a Stage 4 cancer diagnosis didn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know about Elizabeth Edwards. People admired her before she was ill for the same reasons they admire her now. She comes across as honest, smart and unpretentious — as well as both devoted to and independent of her husband. But we have learned a great deal about the political arena from the hubbub that greeted her decision. For all the lip service Washington pays to valuing political players who are authentic and truthful, it turns out that real, honest-to-God straight talk about matters of life, death and, yes, political ambition, drives “some people” (to use Katie Couric’s locution) nuts.
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This is especially true in a campaign where the presumptive (or at least once-presumptive) front-runners in both parties have made candor their calling card: John McCain is once again riding his Straight Talk Express and Hillary Clinton is staking her image on the rubric “Let the Conversation Begin!” They want us to believe that they are speaking in a direct, unfiltered manner, but so far their straight talking, even without Elizabeth Edwards as a yardstick, seems no more natural than Cheez Whiz.
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Images: (McCain) poljunk.gloriousnoise.com via wordpress.com; (Clinton) carryonamerica.com; (Chanel) peachesncreamperfumery.net; (Cheese slices) en-wikipedia.org; (Cheez Whiz) slashfood.com (Old Spice) westons.com via wildburro.co.uk;
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Please find the entire column at Times Select at The New York Times.