Edwards Exits

11:12 am EST January 30th, 2008 | News | 8 Comments

Sen. Edwards is dropping out, and while I think there were serious issues with his campaign organization since day one, he did bring important issues into the race. I think the conventional wisdom that this somehow helps Sen. Clinton is a little screwy. Even without an endorsement of Sen. Obama – which could happen – Edwards voters would seem to me to be more inclined to go with Obama than Clinton to the tune of 60-70 percent of them. Edwards was not a fringe candidate and his percentage of the vote is enough to swing Super Tuesday one way or the other.

Topic: 2008 Election

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8 Responses to “Edwards Exits”

midderpidge says:

January 30, 2008 at 11:40 am

I think Edwards voters will slightly favor Clinton. Health care voters will probably favor her and she doesn’t try to evoke Ronald Reagan. Woman voters that empathized with Elizabeth Edwards will probably go to Clinton.

Richardson is the endorsement to grab. He could swing the Latino vote to either candidate with a word.
Benny says:

January 30, 2008 at 11:52 am

As an Edwards supporter, I can tell you many of us will still vote for him in the primaries and he is not likely to endorse anyone anytime soon.
Nimrod Gently says:

January 30, 2008 at 12:41 pm

Shame really, he might be a good president. In fact he should be vice-president right now.
buma says:

January 30, 2008 at 1:26 pm

I agree with OW. I would have voted for Edwards in the likely meaningless Pennsylvania primary, but now will vote for Obama.
tdreamer says:

January 30, 2008 at 1:45 pm

Now that Edwards has “suspended” his campaign, I’m officially a Hillary Clinton supporter.
Matthew G. Saroff says:

January 30, 2008 at 3:10 pm

Edwards voters would seem to me to be more inclined to go with Obama than Clinton to the tune of 60-70 percent of them.

Ummmm…no.

Your gut is wrong here. The polling shows about 60% inclining towards Hillary.

Remember, you live in DC, where there are a lot of people in the Democratic party still hating on the Clintons, so “Anti-Hillary” is a bigger thing there.
Oliver Willis says:

January 30, 2008 at 4:27 pm

Well, except I don’t talk to any of those people. And I live in Maryland, not DC.

Very different.
Colorado Dave says:

January 30, 2008 at 11:04 pm

This Edwards supporter is undecided between Clinton and Obama although I am probably leaning more towards Obama.

I think they both have electability issues. Hillary will be a miracle for Republican Get Out the Vote efforts. That is a big problem.

On the plus side for Clinton she won’t be sandbagged by the Republican smear machine. And she will dish it back at them in equal measures.

Obama has the name problem. Now, it is likely that anyone who will laugh at the Obama/Osama name rhyme or be concerned because his middle name is Husssein will not be voting for the Democratic candidate anyway. It still is out there. The phony madrassa story is still out there as well.

On the plus side Obama is in a position to change minds and sway voters. Pretty much everyone in the country already has an opinion about Clinton. Whether they view her favorably or unfavorably is already set in stone.

I think Obama is slightly more electable than Clinton so I will likely caucus for him although I am still neither sure nor enthusiastic.

Remember: We are all Democrats and it doesn’t matter who is at the head of the ticket so long as we win in November. Obama is more conservative than Clinton who is more conservative than Edwards.

As president either Obama or Clinton will bring with them thousands of members of the Executive Branch. Most of the people employed by President Clinton or President Obama will be the same no matter who wins. Let just get a Democrat elected President while maintaining a Democratic majority in both houses.

This is going to be a close race and the map of the Electoral College doesn’t look much more attractive to us than it did in November 2004. Let’s just win in Ohio!