You know, there's a very easy-to-understand, very concise, reason why so many right-wingers fail to grasp why John Edwards would choose to stay in the presidential race despite the recurrence of Elizabeth's cancer. And that is this:
Sacrifice, be it personal or shared, isn't a Republican value. Nor is service.
I could expand upon that in much greater detail, and I still might, but that, in a nutshell, says it all. Since Republicans don't understand sacrifice or service, don't respect or honor either, they will never understand what John and Elizabeth are doing. And that fact says as much about their lack of character as it does the Edwardses' abundance of it.