The blogospheric rank-and-file has long been behind Edwards; now many of the influential bloggers are too.
Although the movement to Edwards is happening too late to have any impact on Iowa, the support could bear fruit, financial and otherwise, as the race moves on. In any case, it's heartening to see the progressive blogopshere get behind the strongest progressive in the race.
For months I've been loudly (and annoyingly?) calling on bloggers with prominent platforms to get behind Edwards. Now they are. New supporters include Chris Bowers, Matt Stoller, andMiss Laura. Even longtime Obama leaner Matt Yglesias and primary race agnostic Atrios also want Edwards to win.
If you know of other bloggers, big and small, who support Edwards, feel free to post them in comments. In this post, in which I explain my support for Edwards, are links to endorsement statements from other bloggers.
Of course, some blogs have been fans of Edwards for some time. The Agonist , a great unsung blog, endorsed Edwards in 2004 and just did so again.
...[W]e believe, once again, that John Edwards is the candidate who will finally put an end to the plaintive mewling for, and cooing about, the need for bi-partisanship and consensus in our capital.
Today the middle class--the very foundation of America's great wealth--disappears, gutted by Bush's "Haves and Have Mores." An out of control trade deficit--not to mention an inflationary monetary policy--sucks our treasury dry. And most tragically, a generation of Americans and Iraqis bleed to death in the forbidding deserts of Iraq.
It is time we pulled America into the future and the man to do this is John Edwards.
To be sure, not all of the statements coming from pro-Edwards bloggers are quite so unequivocal. You can almost hear the pining for Dr. Howard FeinGore. Many of the bloggers are not so much for Edwards as they are against Obama--against in particular what Ezra Klein calls Obama's "unity-porn."
Nonetheless, a clear consensus is emerging. An Edwards victory would be good for progressives, good for the party, good for the country. Not bad, hunh? Bowers:
If Edwards wins, the narrative will be about progressivism and populism rising. If Obama wins, the narrative will be about partisanship and ideology declining. If Clinton wins, the narrative will probably be about political skill, or something. Whether or not these narratives are either fair or even accurate matters little right now, since there is precious little time to change them. As such, the apparent truth is that an Edwards victory in Iowa will result in much better press for progressives than either a Clinton or Obama victory.