Wednesday, 01.30.08

Exit Edwards

Flickr user John Edwards 2008 under a CC license

How John Edwards remade the Democrats

So who will John Edwards endorse? That's the question on the minds of Democrats everywhere now that the former senator and vice presidential candidate has bowed out of the race.

Rumor has it that the Obama camp is ready to make promises in exchange for an endorsement, including the Attorney General slot in an Obama White House. One assumes the Clintons are just as eager to make Edwards feel loved. But the truth is that an endorsement would likely mean little. The voters who backed Edwards are a divided group. Though Edwards ran as a populist firebrand committed to an immediate withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, his supporters tend to be self-described moderates and hawkish white men. Some are bitterly opposed to Hillary Clinton. Others are convinced America isn't ready for a black president. This is far from a monolithic bloc, and it's easy to see them splitting right down the middle. Edwards's lasting impact on the race won't be as a kingmaker. Rather, it will be as the candidate who moved the Democrats to the left on healthcare, trade, labor market regulation, and the war. By abandoning the optimistic tone of his first campaign, Edwards found his voice as the tribune of an angry working class. So he will likely remain, whether in a Democratic administration or out on the streets. — Reihan Salam

Filed Under: 2008, Clinton, Democrats, Edwards, Obama