Elizabeth Edwards Back on Stump—for Health Reform

Elizabeth Edwards is cautiously reemerging into public life—sans wedding ring—after her husband's headline-grabbing affair, the Washington Post writes. She declines to play the role of the wronged wife and avoids interviews. But she's giving speeches again, a physically fragile but fierce advocate of a more fair health care system, drawing on her extensive legal experience and her continuing battle with cancer.

Edwards, an attorney who put her own career aside to support her husband's now-vanished political career, rips into the shortfalls in the health care policies of both John McCain (many employers would likely drop health insurance)  and Barack Obama (he hasn't committed to covering every American). "She's no weak woman," a friend says. "She's steely, actually."