U.S. Politics: Analysis and Opinion

John Edwards Endorses Barack Obama

Posted by John Publius Jr. on May 15th, 2008 — in Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Blog

On Wednesday, former presidential candidate John Edwards endorsed Barack Obama. The endorsement from Edwards signaled another step toward Obama’s nomination. John Edwards is an important leader of the Democratic Party and was John Kerry’s running mate in 2004.

John Edwards ran a somewhat disappointing campaign in 2008. He did not win a single primary or caucus. He did sharpen his message, specifically reaching out to people struggling with economic hardship. His prestige within the Democratic Party and support especially among a segment of blue collar and lower-income voters helped pressure both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to pay more attention to poverty issues.

John Edwards’ wife Elizabeth Edwards is also very well-respected and liked. Many speculate that Elizabeth Edwards supports Hillary Clinton.

This endorsement was good timing for Barack Obama’s campaign. A key rule of politics is that when the media is focused on negative stories about you, you need to change the story. Obama’s loss to Clinton in West Virginia by a huge margin was the negative story, and the Edwards endorsement replaced it.

John Edwards has been a harsh critic of the Iraq War and a passionate advocate for universal health care. Edwards won 7% of the vote in the West Virginia primary even though he has not been a candidate since February.

Edwards’ appeal to white working class voters may help Obama slightly, but ultimately Obama needs to do a better job reaching out to this constituency. In the aftermath of his endorsement, 8 of Edwards’ 19 pledged delegates are now pledged to Obama. Meanwhile more super delegates are jumping onboard Obama’s bandwagon.

This has been a long and interesting ride. Hang in there, this one is almost over. I sense that even Hillary Clinton and her campaign realize that she will not be the nominee in 2008. The battle between John McCain and Barack Obama is just beginning.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 15th, 2008 at 9:14 pm and is filed under Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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