Edwards Endorses Obama

Way to stick your neck out there, John. 

Democrat John Edwards endorsed former rival Barack Obama on Wednesday, a move designed to help solidify support for the party’s likely presidential nominee even as Hillary Rodham Clinton refuses to give up her long-shot candidacy.

1. Perfect timing if you ask me.

   Posted by scott on May 14, 2008 at 2223 hrs




2. I’ll give Obama this - put him next to John Edwards, and suddenly he looks authentic and downright sincere.

   Practically speaking, Edwards is worthless.  He’s got, what, 20 pledged delegates?  The guy left his gig in the Senate because he would’ve gotten his ass bounced out of office otherwise.  He couldn’t even deliver his own home state for Kerry against a guy whose approval ratings were tanking.

   So the question is, other than getting a chance to stroke his own ego for one afternoon, WTF is John Edwards looking for out of this?  Unlike a guy like Mike Huckabee, John Edwards has no natural constituency to represent - unless there are enough self-aggrandizing trial lawyers with bonded teeth and a fake tan to call them a constituency.  Nobody wants John Edwards to represent them at ANY level of government.  So who’s he trying to sell himself to?

   Posted by Recess Supervisor on May 14, 2008 at 2355 hrs




3. RS, I see the usual talking points here. First off, Edwards would probably have won against Burr in 2004. Exit polls from November 2004 showed that voters preferred Edwards by 5 or 6 points over Burr, yet matched the actual tally from the real election (Bowles against Burr) pretty well. And of course Edwards couldn’t deliver NC. It was a deep red state where Edwards was only dispatched twice by Kerry to visit. Still, the only state where Kerry improved the Democrats’ share of the vote over Gore was in, you guessed it, North Carolina. Bush even improved in MA, and Kerry was from there and the DNC was held in Boston.

   Edwards was and is very popular in the blue collar demographic that Obama has at times done poorly in. More specifically, he’s popular in Appalachia (he pulled 7% in WV on Tuesday) where Obama has done terribly. Getting this endorsement is good news for Obama, especially since he could knock Clinton’s WV win off the nightly news broadcasts.

   Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on May 15, 2008 at 0746 hrs




4. There’s no way that he gave his endorsement the other day. He gave it last week or earlier, but the Obama camp trotted it out after he got waxed in WV.

   Considering he’s likely going to get smacked around in Kentucky as well, look for another high-profile endorsement soon after that primary.

   Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on May 15, 2008 at 0905 hrs




5. Adamski;

   If he had the Edwards support last week, wouldn’t it have made more sense to pull it out of his bag of tricks BEFORE the election in a state that most thought he would have trouble in and avoid the smackdown?

   Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on May 15, 2008 at 0959 hrs




6. When you are down by over 20 points, and many of those voting are considering race in their decision?

   No.

   Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on May 15, 2008 at 1016 hrs




7. There’s no reason to think the endorsement was previously agreed upon and only made public for the purposes of soothing the wounds of WV.

   What I do believe, is that Edwards chose that moment—post WV defeat—to make the endorsement, and he did it precisely to alleviate the bad press Obama got from it.

   Posted by scott on May 15, 2008 at 1131 hrs




8. You think that’s the more likely scenario than having Obama hold the announcement after his predicted shelling in WV?

   Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on May 15, 2008 at 1242 hrs




9. http://www.redlasso.com/ClipPlayer.aspx?id=3b356 d3c-c94c-4063-a5ec-79a206133113

   At least Edwards knew last week what he was going to do. I can’t imagine that he didn’t hook up with the Obama campaign before Tuesday this week.

   Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on May 15, 2008 at 1251 hrs




10. And who really gives a flyin’ f__k what The Breck Girl opines?

    Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on May 15, 2008 at 1255 hrs