Edwards Fights to Stay Relevant

[cali]

John Edwards has been here before — literally. He doesn't remember it, but surveying the crowd in Winnacunnet High School in Hampton this week, Edwards was looking at a whole new crop of students from the ones he addressed here nearly four years ago to the day. "Really? I was there?" Edwards asked laughing when I reminded him Tuesday he'd visited the school before, his voice hoarse from the all-night, 36-hour bus tour he finished earlier that morning. "I wish I could remember that clearly, but I don't. I've done too many campaign events this week."


Edwards pushed as hard as he could ahead of the New Hampshire primary, holding more than 20 events in four days to make his populist pitch that he is the only genuine "change" candidate in the race. But after a surprise second place showing in the Iowa caucuses, the former North Carolina senator failed to parlay that momentum into a stronger-than-expected showing in the New Hampshire primary. Edwards came in third place, garnering around 17% of the vote behind Hillary Clinton's 39% and Barack Obama's 37%. "Up until now one half of 1% of the country has voted," Edwards told supporters in Manchester Tuesday night. "Ninety-nine percent plus have not voted and we need to hear from them. We have had too much in America of people's voices not being heard."

And as he was at the high school, the former vice presidential candidate has been in almost this exact same position before. In 2004 he won an insurgent silver in Iowa only to place a brutal fourth in New Hampshire, winning just one primary after that, his home state of South Carolina, before dropping out. "We're much stronger than we were last time, that's clear," Edwards said in an interview with TIME. "I mean we have more support, we have better organization and I'm very encouraged by all that." His third place showing in New Hampshire this time around, though, still makes it a challenge for him to regain momentum going into South Carolina, Nevada and beyond in a crowded three-person field — a field that up until now has not worked to his advantage.

To a certain extent, Edwards is running on a Jerry Brown model to win the nomination. The former California governor gave Hillary's husband, Bill Clinton, a scare in 1992 before a gaffe forced Brown to bow out. Like Edwards, Brown was largely ignored by the media until his grassroots campaign and populist message caught on in late March. Edwards is a much stronger and more credible candidate than Brown, who ran as a quirky outsider, but there are a lot of similarities in their messages: Brown ran on a platform of campaign finance reform, pledging to end the "Stop-and Shop for the monied special interests"; Edwards has focused his campaign on fighting corporate greed and restoring the middle class. "I don't think we're going to have meaningful change in this country unless we have a president that's willing to fight the entrenched special interests," Edwards said.

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http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1701637,00.html

[ORDem]

1. If Edwards wants to be relevant

then he needs to drop out and start working for Obama. An Obama/Edwards ticket would be unbeatable (granted, there's not much to beat this year, lol). And for those looking for a Clinton/Obama ticket? That's first of all a non-starter and secondly would spell doom in the GE.