CHAPEL HILL, North Carolina (CNN) — Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards said Thursday his wife’s cancer has returned but his bid for the White House will continue.

“The campaign goes on,” the former senator from North Carolina said at a news conference, contradicting earlier media reports.

John Edwards said tests this week had shown his wife, Elizabeth, had cancer in a rib on her right side. He said the cancer is treatable but not curable.

“We are very optimistic about this,” he said, noting that the tumor is small in size and has a “relatively minimal presence.”

Elizabeth Edwards, 57, said she was “incredibly optimistic” and said her expectations about the future were unchanged.

“I expect to do next week all the things I did last week. And the week after that, and next year at the same time,” she said.

My heart goes out to John and Elizabeth Edwards today. Their optimism and courage in the face of her recurrence of breast cancer is an example to us all. My thoughts are with her.

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The early returns are in; Barack Obama wins.

At least that’s the way it looks at San Antonio’s Central Library, where 79 people are waiting to read the Illinois senator’s new book, “The Audacity of Hope.”

Another 21 are waiting for “Dreams from My Father, Obama’s 1995 autobiography.

Publishing has become a must-do on the presidential campaign trail, a stop as necessary for serious contenders as an Iowa church picnic. Whether the books are autobiographical, outlines of campaign platforms or policy statements, everybody who’s thinking about running apparently figures they have to write a book.

The 22 candidates listed by the Washington Post as having declared their candidacy or formed exploratory committees for 2008 have published a total of 36 books, according to Amazon.com. Four more are expected this year.

I read a lot, but the idea of reading 36 about presidential hopefuls is daunting. I suppose it is hopeful that there are 79 people on the waiting list for “Audacity of Hope” in San Antonio. Barack Obama didn’t hit San Antonio last week when he was in Texas but maybe later in the campaign he will. I have heard the John Edwards will be in town the March 7th and it looks like Giuliani will be here tonight for a private fund raiser. With San Antonio being the 7th largest city in the country you would think we would have seen everyone by now but since I am not in charge of the campaigns I don’t get to make those calls.

Back to books, a couple of weeks ago I was perusing books at my local target and “The Audacity of Hope” was upside down and backwards in all four places they had it. The rest of the books were in perfect order. I turned them around and picked up a copy and when we were back the next week sure enough all his books were upside down and backward again. Alright, no mistake there, I know I righted the books, so it is some kind of weird political statement. I can’t imagine that it would be a particularly effective political statement but they must think it is worth their time. It didn’t work because last time I was there they were down to 1 from 12 less than a month prior.

I don’t know, I am just not feeling any of the candidates yet. I have some worries about if some of the dem front runners can beat the republican front runners but it is still early and the landscape will probably change a dozen times before the primaries.

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