I was really passionate about John Edwards' run for President. I couldn't see another candidate who had his grasp of the policies we needed on the domestic front, the understanding of the colossal mistakes he and others made on the foreign front, and the will to fight against the powers that like and benefit from the way the country is.
I argued repeatedly on these pages that our best bet for Edwards' policies to stay in the public eye (barring his becoming President) was to stay in the race and gather up delegates to broker a deadlocked convention. I was dismayed that Obama and Clinton only addressed poverty, the environment, stimulus, energy independence and other issues after Edwards got traction on them. I was worried that without Edwards around they would drop these issues.
With the results of February 5, the likelihood of a brokered convention is higher than ever and Edwards will have almost nothing to bargain with.
The weird thing about it is that had Edwards stayed in the race he would have drastically changed the percentages and one or the other candidate would have benefited. Probably Clinton. And that would have created a shift of momentum that may have made a brokered convention unlikely.
But we don't know. It's like when an idiot football announcer tell us that if there hadn't been a holding penalty that the runner would have scored, ignoring that fact that without the holding the runner might have been tackled and no touchdown would have happened at all.
Maybe the Edwards folks who shifted to Obama would have anyway. There was enough Hillary-hate and Obamamentum talk amongst my Edwards friends that this was a possibility. When I announced my endorsement of Clinton there was visceral anger at me for doing so. Perhaps the Edwards folks who went to Clinton would have stayed home and the others would have gone to Obama and given him a big win.
The point is we don't know what would have happened.
But we do know that some folks -- including me -- would have stayed with Edwards and given him more delegates. And my personal feeling is that his dropping out helped Obama but not enough to make for a huge shift. Edwards had only 15 percent of the vote in his best states, and even if his support went 70 percent to Obama that's only a six percent shift of overall votes.
Had Edwards stayed in he'd have at least doubled his delegates and been in an even better position for August. But he's not.
And now I just wait for the campaign to be all about Hillary hate, Obamamentum, inside baseball, campaign tactics, electibility and not at all about the issues that got me fired up in the first place.
I'm pissed at Obama for his right wing attacks on Hillary. I'm pissed at Hillary for her right wing attacks on Obama. I'm further pissed at Hillary for trying to steal FL and OH MI delegates, and for agreeing to appear on the Republican "News" channel. I'm further pissed at Obama for talking about "change" without talking about change, and for his health care plan.
And now I am pissed at Edwards for dropping out right when we needed him to move the country in the right direction.
Since December we've pretty much known he wasn't going to be President. But even last week we knew he had the potential to direct the presidential campaign discussions and issues.
Now he doesn't.