Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Edwards Out: Why Now?

So John Edwards is ending his campaign today. I'm surprised by the timing, as I expected him to remain in (as he said) through the super-duper Tuesday races where he might have garnered enough delegates to become a deal maker at the convention. His chances of winning the nomination died in South Carolina, but he still was in a position to exercise a lot of influence on the party platform.
So now it's down to Obama vs. Clinton, as the pundits always said. My preferred candidates have all dropped out, as I expected. My first choice never wins. But I am compelled to support whoever wins the Democratic nomination for one specific reason: the Supreme Court. Whoever wins in November will have at least 2 nominees, and possibly more, and I don't want the court to move any further to the right.
So the real question is how this changes the dynamics of the race. Edwards was the last true progressive in the race. Who will gain the majority of his supporters?

4 comments:

Justin said...

I wondered the same thing. I am guessing Edwards thinks his supporters will go to either obama or clinton. My guess is they will go to Obama. but i dont really know.

gandhisxmas

Anonymous said...

I was really upset this morning when I heard the news. Frankly I was taken quite by surprise that Edwards dropped out before next Tuesday.

I liked Edwards' populist message, hence, I will go for Obama. I also have an unpleasant feeling about another dynasty in the Whitehouse, but I will vote for Hillary Clinton if she is the nominee. It is genetically, biologically impossible for me to vote for a Republican.

pygalgia said...

DCup, I've got a post coming on Obama/Clinton, but I agree with you completely.
G-Man, depends on which state, and what the candidates say. Looks like a split to me.

Mauigirl said...

Based only on Florida (heard this on the radio), Edwards supporters there tended to be more blue collar, more apt to be white and less affluent, and also more apt to feel the country wasn't ready for a woman or black president. That said, given that Hillary's supporters tend to be more white and lower income than Obama's overall, I'm wondering if Edwards' supporters will skew toward her.

However, that may only be an artifact of Florida and not representative of all states. So it remains to be seen. I had thought his message would be more in common with Obama's but it is hard to say how it will play out.