In the blink of an eye.
Democrat Tom Vilsack, the former Iowa governor who built a centrist image, abandoned his bid for the presidency on Friday after struggling against better-known, better-financed rivals.
Vilsack, 56, left office in January and traveled to early voting states, but he attracted neither the attention nor the campaign cash of his top-tier rivals — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton , Sen. B, , ) and John Edwards .
"I came up against something for the first time in my life that hard work and effort couldn‘t overcome," he said. "I just couldn‘t work any harder, couldn‘t give it enough."
Video of Tom Vilsack dropping out:
Man, if he couldn’t work any harder almost 2 years before the election, I guess it’s better that he got out early.
Well, if Vilsack’s out, Biden can’t be too far behind. And Dodd, too, if his poll numbers don’t come up more. Gravel really doesn’t have a compelling reason to run, nor does Kucinich(since the entire field is pro-UHC, anti-war, anti-GW). That’d leave Obama, HRC, Edwards and Richardson. I kinda think Edwards should drop out if his national numbers don’t start rising, and if his fundraising is far behind the top two. If this settled into a two way race as early as possible, Hillary loses.
That’s a shame.
Not saying I would’ve voted for the guy, I don’t know that much about him. I think his chances ranged somewhere between “slim” and “none” – altho in 1991 I was hoping either Mario Cuomo or Lloyd Bentsen were going to run…but eventually tagged on to this governor from Arkansas and I’d say that turned out alright.
But as far as Vilsack is concerned, I would’ve like to have had the chance to find out what kind of candidate he is, where he stands on the important issues, what his values are, etc.
Edwards will not drop out when he has nearly a M from ACT Blue for the past 2 months, and we don’t know about the check givers from the past month. My understanding is that Edwards’ fundraising is more competitive than Richardson’s, but certainly Geffen’s 1.3 in one night for Obama isn’t anything to snark at either.
I don’t know how Biden (D-MBNA) is doing, but he has zilch on ACT Blue.