EDWARDS CASHING IN ON WIFE'S CANCER
April 5, 2007 -- Democratic White House hopeful John Edwards' team has been collecting e-mail addresses from supporters who've sent his cancer-stricken wife, Elizabeth, notes - and using them for fund-raising requests, aides acknowledged yesterday.
The link on Edwards' campaign Web site invites people to "send a note to Elizabeth and John" and features a sad letter from the former senator penned just after the couple found out her breast cancer had spread and is now incurable.
But people who've been sending such well wishes have been hit with e-mail solicitations from Team Edwards, asking for donations just as all candidates are looking to post big online fund-raising numbers.
In the letter, Edwards says the pair is staying optimistic and fighting hard for Elizabeth. Below the letter is a space for writing the couple a message - which can't be sent without all sections completed, including one asking for the sender's e-mail address.
That, in turn, is added to the campaign's online database for boosting Internet donations.
In response, message-senders get a "thank you" for their kind words, but no other indication that their e-mail addresses are being stored.
Late yesterday, after being confronted by questions from reporters, the campaign said it will add an option to allow well-wishers to decline getting future e-mails.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth Edwards said she feels she let down both her family and the country by failing to get mammograms.
Appearing with her husband in Davenport, Iowa, she said by the time she felt a lump in her breast in 2004 and was able to have it removed, it had grown to nine centimeters and the cancer had spread elsewhere.
"I do not have to be in this situation," Mrs. Edwards told a gathering of 500 people. "I am responsible for putting myself, this man, my family and, frankly, putting you all at risk, too, because I think you deserve the chance to vote for this man."
Later, John Edwards said he knows his wife didn't get mammograms because she isn't in the habit of putting herself first.
"It's not surprising to me that she would say that," Edwards said. With Post Wire Services
New York Post
Cross posted to PolitiConflicts and My_Scuttlebutt
Anyone else think this is tacky or merely a smear tactic? For me, Edwards has been very clear about where he stands, etc and I find this to be disappointing. What do you think? I'm sincerely hoping it was an oversight by his campaign, but this is the kind of thing you don't miss, you can't miss this with the current political climate. Every little "mistake" can be turned into something much bigger.
The link on Edwards' campaign Web site invites people to "send a note to Elizabeth and John" and features a sad letter from the former senator penned just after the couple found out her breast cancer had spread and is now incurable.
But people who've been sending such well wishes have been hit with e-mail solicitations from Team Edwards, asking for donations just as all candidates are looking to post big online fund-raising numbers.
In the letter, Edwards says the pair is staying optimistic and fighting hard for Elizabeth. Below the letter is a space for writing the couple a message - which can't be sent without all sections completed, including one asking for the sender's e-mail address.
That, in turn, is added to the campaign's online database for boosting Internet donations.
In response, message-senders get a "thank you" for their kind words, but no other indication that their e-mail addresses are being stored.
Late yesterday, after being confronted by questions from reporters, the campaign said it will add an option to allow well-wishers to decline getting future e-mails.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth Edwards said she feels she let down both her family and the country by failing to get mammograms.
Appearing with her husband in Davenport, Iowa, she said by the time she felt a lump in her breast in 2004 and was able to have it removed, it had grown to nine centimeters and the cancer had spread elsewhere.
"I do not have to be in this situation," Mrs. Edwards told a gathering of 500 people. "I am responsible for putting myself, this man, my family and, frankly, putting you all at risk, too, because I think you deserve the chance to vote for this man."
Later, John Edwards said he knows his wife didn't get mammograms because she isn't in the habit of putting herself first.
"It's not surprising to me that she would say that," Edwards said. With Post Wire Services
New York Post
Cross posted to PolitiConflicts and My_Scuttlebutt
Anyone else think this is tacky or merely a smear tactic? For me, Edwards has been very clear about where he stands, etc and I find this to be disappointing. What do you think? I'm sincerely hoping it was an oversight by his campaign, but this is the kind of thing you don't miss, you can't miss this with the current political climate. Every little "mistake" can be turned into something much bigger.