I received the following YouTube video from the John Edwards campaign this week on my E-mail.  I usually don’t watch these, but for some reason I clicked on it.

 It made me shudder. 

A breast cancer victim is 30 to 50 percent more likely to die if she doesn’t have health insurance? 

And how many women in this country don’t have health insurance?  A quick, and, yes, unscientific, search on the web suggests it’s somewhere between 20 and 25 million women.

The woman who shared her story in the video touched me.  I can’t even begin to imagine being in her situation.  We’re lucky here at Chez PunditMom — we’ve got a good health insurance policy and only one child left who we need a college savings account for.

But I was even more floored by Edwards’ response — yes, he assured her, he would work hard to change the way health care and insurance coverage are doled out in this country, but he also added that while he would fight for that he couldn’t promise what would ultimately get done. 

A politician who could have made an expedient but empty promise who didn’t.  Pretty amazing.

But it is the truth.  No presidential candidate can promise us anything, because there’s the little matter of the legislative branch of government.  They all have to find a way to play nicely together to accomplish anything in Washington, D.C., and as we know that doesn’t happen often.

That’s what I find refreshing about John Edwards’ campaign.  At least in that moment, he was honest — honest about his hopes and plans, and honest about the realities of the political process.

Attention all other presidential candidates — if you want us to listen to your message, please add a dose of that kind of honesty to your stump messages, as well.  Believe it or not, we are paying attention and after the last seven years, we’re more than ready for some real straight talk from the White House wannabes.