Cancer patients and their families know probably better than anyone about the importance of soldiering on. We do it quietly every day, not by running for the nation’s highest office, but by raising kids, going to work, walking the dog, or even putting away the clean laundry that’s been sitting folded in the basket for weeks.

So John Edwards’ announcement to continue with his Democratic political ambitions isn’t that surprising, despite the news that his wife’s breast cancer has spread to her bones and possibly her lungs — pushing the family back into that netherworld of cancer uncertainty. “We’re not going to cower in a corner,” John Edwards said staunchly.