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Are you weary of the interminable presidential election and eager to focus on other topics? If you're not entirely fed up, here are few footnotes about people who've been on the political margins.

• First John Edwards, North Carolina's former U.S. senator who started running for president 10 minutes after he got to Washington but, after two attempts, called it quits but not before becoming Sen. John Kerry's 2004 vice presidential running mate.

Edwards has been living in political purgatory for several months. The reason, you'll recall, was news of his extramarital affair with an unwed campaign worker who gave birth to a baby last February. Edwards denied that he'd fathered the child and offered to take a DNA test. The woman refused, saying it would invade her baby's privacy. And so it goes....

This week Edwards emerged from purgatory and hit the lecture circuit at Indiana University. He talked about weighty topics but only took written questions from the audience to avoid embarrassing questions about his extramarital affair.

During his speech Edwards, who lives on a palatial estate on the outskirts of Chapel Hill, said he would devote his life to fighting poverty. If so, he'll be doing it in fine style. Indiana University paid him $35,000 for his speech. Some students grumbled that he wasn't worth it. Yep.

• Moving trucks will be doing a land-office business as the Bush team leaves town and the Obama administration arrives.

Among Republicans who won't be budging will be Cindy McCain, John's wife. During her husband's years in the U.S. Senate, she has continued to live in Arizona.

She sampled Washington in the early years of their marriage and thought it was "a harsh town." There were whispers that Cindy, his second wife who was many years younger and rich to boot, was McCain's "trophy wife."

That hurt. So she moved back to Arizona, reared the couple's children there, and her husband commutes between Washington and Arizona.

During the presidential campaign, she told reporters she would move to the White House and be a full-fledged first lady if John were elected.

But I wondered if -- way down deep in a Freudian sense -- she was relieved that she'd been spared the anguish of moving to Washington and becoming first lady. Just a thought; I'm no shrink.

• Speaking of moving, the Obama family of Chicago will undertake the most momentous move of all. I'm not referring to Barack and Michelle, who'll have their own adjustments, but to their two young daughters, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7.

Ever since he was elected to the U.S. Senate, Obama has commuted between Washington and the Obama's home in Chicago. Many members of Congress commute if their families prefer to stay home because of a spouse's job or children's wishes. For example, Congressman Rahm Emanuel, Obama's new chief of staff, has been commuting between Washington and Chicago for years. Vice President-elect Joe Biden travels daily by train from Washington to his home in Delaware.

Come January, the Obama family will be moving into the 132-room White House. Malia and Sasha will be the youngest children to live there since Caroline and "John-John" Kennedy.

We don't know what the Obama children think about leaving their playmates and familiar school in Chicago and moving to Washington. I'm guessing their feelings are mixed.

Sure, the White House has its perks -- a swimming pool, bowling alley, basketball court (or half of one), a huge fenced-in yard. And sure, kids are often more adaptable to change than adults.

Yet Malia and Sasha are about to have their lives uprooted and inexorably changed because they're moving into a fishbowl. Bill and Hillary Clinton did a superb job of shielding Chelsea, who was only 12 when she moved there, from the media's glare. Ditto for George and Laura Bush, whose daughters were much older.

So here's a suggestion for those of us in the media: Let's give Malia and Sasha their childhoods without being too intrusive.

Rosemary Roberts writes a Friday column. E-mail: rmroberts@triad.rr.com.