Edward's Announcement Today - Will He Withdraw?

There speculation that Sen. John Edwards may withdraw from his years long presidential race today due to health issues with his wife. He has an announcement scheduled for noon Eastern time (h/t Captain Ed):

John Edwards, the North Carolina Democrat making a second bid for the presidency, announced late Wednesday night that he would hold a news conference Thursday, a day after he and his wife, Elizabeth, visited Mrs. Edwards’ doctor to assess her health following her recovery from breast cancer.

Mrs. Edwards, in a brief interview from her home in Chapel Hill, said she and Mr. Edwards would discuss her health at the news conference, but she declined to elaborate. ...

The Edwards campaign announced the news conference at the end of a day when Mr. Edwards canceled a campaign appearance to join his wife at a visit to her doctor. Mrs. Edwards was diagnosed with cancer in 2004, almost on the day that Mr. Edwards, running for vice president on the Democratic ticket with Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, lost to President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. ...

Mr. Edwards canceled an appearance in Iowa on Wednesday, so he could go to a follow-up doctor’s appointment with his wife. Early in the day, associates of Mr. Edwards said they had no reason to believe the check-up was anything to worry about, but late Wednesday evening two friends said they believed the news was bad.

Having just recently lost a friend to cancer, I wouldn't wish that problem on anybody. I personally don't think Edwards has much of a chance against Hillary and Obama anyway, and a withdrawal was likely at some point, but you hate to see it happen because of health issues. We'll see what he says at noon.

UPDATE: No withdrawal or suspension despite the fact that Mrs. Edwards has what is described as incurable but treatable cancer that has spread to her bones. That's not a good prognosis.

The politics of this whole thing are curious. The Politico and a couple of other political sites announced last night that sources close to the Edwards campaign had stated that Edwards would suspend the campaign for now, but when the actual press conference occurred this morning, that info turned out to be wrong. The media is playing up the "pleasant surprise" that the Edwards campaign will continue. Although the medical news is not good for the Edwards family, it's pretty clear that a great many political calculations went into the decision to hold a televised press conference when a simple press release could have sufficed.

The question is, did someone in the campaign leak the "suspension" news purposely to set up the "surprise" this morning? Hard to say.

The Politico has a mea culpa post detailing how they got it wrong.