protracted battle would have harmed americans with higher taxes and lost unemployment checks. he gave us a hard assessment of the president s compromise. we are going to get that tonight. and we learned late today that elizabeth edwards, wife of the former presidential candidate john edwards has lost her battle with cancer at the age of just 61. she was a very popular figure, i must say caught up in a very difficult family situation that became such a political story. chuck todd is nbc s chief white house correspondent and time magazine s mark halperin, msnbc s senior political analyst. mark, i want to go to you first on this. elizabeth edwards just died, been in terrible health for months, for years in fact, caught up in this triangle, her embarrassment, her husband, hurt to her. we don t see much of this in politics where you have really a horrible disease striking somebody so popular and attractive as this. at the same time, she is on the wrong end of a scandal and t