As we noted Thursday morning, the Washington Post this week prominentaly mentioned that the wife of Democratic politician John Edwards, Elizabeth, was missing her wedding band when she recently stepped back into public view. Perhaps, we thought, this was a sign the marriage was over. But as commenter La Cieca first noticed, Edwards also went ringless in 2007; we dug through photo archives and found she's been slipping her ring on and off for years now, seemingly without regard for the ups and downs of her marriages. The band would appear meaningless as to the state of her marriage. And yet:

Though the Washington Post probably gave undue prominence to Edwards' lack of a ring, mentioning this fact in the lead of its story, it was not necessarily wrong to play up her distance from her husband. (The paper said Elizabeth was "emerging from her husband's shadow" and noted twice that she attended her speaking engagement alone.)

Bear in mind that, as we reported before, the questions about the marriage go beyond picture-gazing. There's still the matter of what the New York Post reported on Page Six:

A source said Edwards is no longer living with Elizabeth and that the couple have separated. But reps for Elizabeth Edwards did not return calls and e-mails.

Surely the New York Post and its gossip page have been wrong before. But then, the same can be said of the National Enquirer, which proved more credible than John Edwards himself on his adultery.