Elizabeth Edwards Blamed for Keeping Silent on Cheating John

You would think that a woman who had her husband of 30 years defile their matrimonial pledge while she was battling cancer would be garnering the sympathy of everyone. Not Elizabeth Edwards. The wife of the two-time Democratic presidential contender and one time vice presidential nominee is not getting the pity of all Americans, particularly those in her party.

The reason some people find it hard to sympathize with Elizabeth is due to what she risked in keeping her husband's affair a secret. Mrs. Edwards admitted to knowing abut the affair as far back as 2006, when her husband had confessed to her. She said in her blog that she kept quiet about it because she believed that "this was our private matter, and I frankly wanted it to be private because as painful as it was I did not want to have to play it out on a public stage as well." While her intentions might have been good, a lot of people feel that she took a huge risk in being complicit in an attempt to cover up her husband's affair.

If John Edwards had become the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party, what would have happened to the democrats when the story leaks as it did? She is being blamed for that part of the deal; not thinking of how her silence would affect the party if her husband were to win.

Even now that he did not win, some people still feel that somehow the affair took away from the party, as it kept John Edwards from being fully involved in the Democratic National convention going on in Denver. Presidential nominee Barack Obama had expressed interests in working closely with John Edwards in issues such as healthcare. In fact, he had even been a close runner up in Obama's search for a running mate. But due to the affair, his dream of becoming a president or vice president is dead or at least deferred for now.

I see why people would blame Elizabeth for serving her own interest and not think of what her husband's affair would mean for the Democratic Party. This is especially serious given that he was running third in the race and was close to being on the ticket as Obama's running mate. But we should not shift the blame from the man who committed the act.

It was John Edwards who chose to take his pants off and commit a serious betrayal of his wife. It was John Edwards who in a brief moment of ecstasy forgot his 30 years of matrimony to a woman who mothered his children. It was John Edwards who had the heart to sleep with another woman when his own wife was battling deadly illness, yet she still carried that sickness to campaign for his election.

I'm not making excuses for Elizabeth, but I think that blaming her when she is in fact a victim is wrong.