As predicted by The Page, and reported faithfully by me, John Edwards did indeed endorse Barack Obama last night. It was particularly good timing, as it came just as interviews with Hillary Clinton were being shown on the major evening news shows.
Stumper has the definitive 'Does Edwards Matter?' piece:
The frantic coverage is a given. But will the Edwards endorsement actually change anything? It's unlikely--and the reason is timing. If the former North Carolina senator had taken a real risk and sided with the Illinois senator back when someone not named "Barack Obama" had even the remotest chance of clinching the nomination--say, before Super Tuesday, or Ohio, or even Indiana--he might have helped his blue-collar base overcome its suspicions, vote for his chosen candidate and bring this interminable battle to an end.
I'm inclined to agree. Edwards, like Mike Huckabee, has come out well from the primary contest. He's gone from being a one-term senator and failed VP candidate, with very little depth of support within the Democratic party, to almost the position of party grandee. Some even regard him as a possible running mate for Obama:
No one missed the fact that Barack Obama and John Edwards looked right together. "They looked fantastic together," gushed Jill Zuckman, the Chicago Tribune's able political writer. "They looked like a ticket."
Even Obama seemed to notice.
"I haven't been seeing John as much," said the Illinois senator. "I forgot how good he is."
Settle down. Edwards' move does have practical impact, in that the 26 pledged delegates he had accumulated are now released, and most should move to Obama. He also picked up the endorsement of the National Union of Steelworkers, which had previously backed Edwards.
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