Legal Commentary

John Edwards Dropping Out

By Big Tent Democrat

This is surprising to me. MSNBC , CNN and AP is reporting that John Edwards is dropping out of the Presidential race.

I think the big question is will he endorse Barack Obama. I do not imagine he would endorse Clinton. He is definitely NOT endorsing today news reports say.

The announcement is to take place in New Orleans at 1. Chuck Todd says Edwards would not do this if it helps Clinton. Honestly, I assume Edwards MAY think that, but my first impression is this helps Clinton, not Obama. And a January LATimes poll supports this view:

A Jan. 24 Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg News poll found that nationally, Edwards voters prefer Clinton to Obama by a slight margin.

More as information develops.

The first big effect is that Thurday night's debate will be one on one. Does this help Obama? My impression is it does not. I think Hillary has been superior to Obama in the debate format. With more time, I think this advantage gets magnified.

This is a CNN debate, not an NBC special, so it is likely to be much more substantive than an NBC debate. Less Russert and Williams nonsense. TO me, if Edwards wanted to help Obama, he could have stayed in the race and in the debate and hammered Clinton. Hard to say imo that Edwards is thinking of Obama's fortunes here.

One other important effect imo is turning the page on what has happened before in this campaign. It is like a fresh start.

The campaign begins anew tomorrow night at the debate.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on January 30, 2008 (boomark / email).