My colleague David Von Drehle has a insightful piece about Elizabeth Edwards life and death. Read it here.

During the 2004 campaign, I had an interview with John Edwards the day of the second debate between John Kerry and George W. Bush. We were flying from New Jersey to Detroit and I had 20 minutes with him at the end of the flight. It was a terrible interview — even by Edwards’ own admission. He spent the entire time reading the Wall Street Journal (at the time I worked for Dow Jones’ biggest rival, Bloomberg). “He’s just woken up from a nap,” said his staffer. “He’s grumpy. Why don’t you have a beer with him after the debate? Really get to know him.”

So, even though my not-so-flattering story had already been filed, I found myself at the hotel bar at 10pm having a beer with Edwards. He sat down and almost without preamble asked, “Have I ever told you how I met my wife?” No, I replied. And so he launched into the story.