Alright, first off, die hard Edwards fan here. And Wolfson is not my favorite guy. That being said, he is putting it out there that Edward's being in the race in Iowa cost Clinton the other votes that she would have gotten had he been truthful about the affair or had dropped out.
So in essence, Edwards took Clinton's win in Iowa by lying, and giving a win to Obama.
more here
"I believe we would have won Iowa, and Clinton today would therefore have been the nominee," former Clinton Communications Director Howard Wolfson told ABCNews.com.
Clinton finished third in the Iowa caucuses barely behind Edwards in second place and Obama in first. The momentum of the insurgent Obama campaign beating two better-known candidates -- not to mention an African-American winning in such an overwhelmingly white state -- changed the dynamics of the race forever.
Obama won 37.6 per cent of the vote. Edwards won 29.7 per cent and Clinton won 29.5 per cent, according to results posted by the Iowa Democratic Party.
"Our voters and Edwards' voters were the same people," Wolfson said the Clinton polls showed. "They were older, pro-union. Not all, but maybe two-thirds of them would have been for us and we would have barely beaten Obama."
Two months earlier, Edwards had vociferously, but falsely, denied a story in the National Enquirer about the alleged affair last October, and few in the mainstream media even reported the denial.
And even Carville chimes in on this theory.
Former Clinton adviser James Carville told "Good Morning America" that Wolfson's comments are just speculation.
"My instinct tells me she probably would have done better if Senator Edwards wouldn't have been on the ballot," said Carville. "But that wasn't the circustances at the time. I think Howard is fine in engaging in this kind of speculation, but it doesn't really mean very much."
Well what do you think? Calculation? I don't know. Either way, I think an Obama Clinton only Iowa primary would have been a lot different (and I would not have been in Iowa city on New Years.)