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COLUMNISTS
TODAY'S STORIES
13.01.2008
Maybe Edwards Really Does Prefer Obama

The other day I questioned Dan Balz's assertion that Edwards prefers Obama. Big mistake! Check out some of the pro-Obama/anti-Hillary remarks Edwards made earlier today at a church in South Carolina:

And this may come as a surprise to some of you, coming from another presidential candidate, me, but as someone who grew up in the segregated South, I feel an enormous amount of pride when I see the success that Senator Barack Obama is having in this campaign.

And some days, now I’d be less than honest if I didn’t say some days I wish he was having a little less success, but it gives me great pride to see the reception he has received. We have come a long way in the 54 years that I’ve been on this earth, but not far enough. We still have work to do.  And the hopes that both Senator Obama and I have for this nation and this country that we love so much, they’re real hopes.

I must say I was troubled recently to see a suggestion that real change came not through the Reverend Martin Luther King, but through a Washington politician.  I fundamentally disagree with that.  Those who believe that real change starts with Washington politicians have been in Washington too long and are living in a fairy tale.

I stand corrected.

--Jason Zengerle 

Posted: Sunday, January 13, 2008 6:57 PM with 9 comment(s)

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blackton said:

South Carolina is Edward's last shot, if he comes in third then he has to drop out so that all the Hillary haters can unite under Obama and drive a stake through the vampiric Clinton campaign, which seems to thrive in darkness sucking the lifeblood out of the hopes of America.

January 13, 2008 2:17 PM

ejbenjamin said:

Edwards seems good-natured and gracious with this quote.  If Clinton had managed to be the same way, she'd have won it all by now.

January 13, 2008 4:02 PM

daveis said:

blackton has got it right. As does Dan Balz. The Clinton campaign does thrive in vampiric darkness sucking the lifeblood out of the hopes of America. They must be Karl Rove's Democratic Establishment cousins!

January 13, 2008 6:26 PM

boxofrox said:

Hey Blackie. Maybe you should stop being so coy and just come out and tell folks how you really feel.

January 13, 2008 6:59 PM

BryanRDC said:

this is good - right down to the echo of BC's "fairy tale" quote...

January 13, 2008 9:03 PM

AaronBBrown said:

Is it any wonder that John Edwards looks like he's going to line up behind Barack Obama, when the Clinton campaign is willing, is doomed to such tactics as these.

Minority Reports -- The New Yorker

www.newyorker.com/.../080121fa_fact_lizza

[She mocked Obama for raising “false hopes” and hinted to one audience that if Obama were elected Al Qaeda would strike America to test him. “I don’t think it was by accident that Al Qaeda decided to test the new Prime Minister,” she said, of the attempts in Great Britain to plant bombs after Gordon Brown succeeded Tony Blair. When Bill Clinton dismissed Obama’s antiwar purity as a “fairy tale,” it was easy to think that that’s how the Clintons wanted voters to view the entire Obama phenomenon.]

This is right out of the Karl Rove Republican playbook circa 2006, when during the election we had proclamations coming right out of the White House, that voting for a Democrat and handing over the House and Senate to the Democrats, was the equivalent of voting for Al Qaeda and our enemies.

The Clintons need to go down, and they need to go down hard, because it's obvious they will do virtually anything to gain power.  They've been FEAR MONGERING from the start of this campaign, and there are using it now to try and frightened uneducated ignorant voters with tactics like these.  All you have to do is look at the people they've got running their campaign, Mark Penn, the guy obviously has no scruples or moral center.  With each passing day I lose respect for the Clintons.

January 13, 2008 10:17 PM

dcshungu said:

" Maybe Edwards Really Does Prefer Obama"

It is a fantasy to think that Edwards would try to benefit another candidate while he is still in the race.

Let's not forget that he is still in this race and,at this point, his only hope or calculation must be that none of the candidates would get  the number of delegates required to win the nomination, which might give him an outside chance to win it at the party convention. If he thought that he was finished and truly wanted to support Obama, the easiest thing for him to do would be to drop out of the race and endorse Obama! Therefore, I am quite cynical about Edwards intentions in making those pro-Obama/Anti-Hillary statements in SC, just as the primary there is approaching. It seems more logical that Edwards is pandering for a share of the whopping 45% black vote, which ironically, if he is successful in attracting, might help him win enough votes to accumulate a share of the delegates but hurt Obama in the process. Until he drops out, Edwards will be in this race for Edwards. Let's not lose sight of that...  

January 13, 2008 11:18 PM

avi_kogan said:

Actually, dcshungu, I disagree.  As long as Edwards stays in the South Carolina race, he will take away votes from Clinton among whites who may not be ready to vote for an African-American.  An Edwards endorsement for Obama seems to me unlikely to persuade them to vote differently.  As others have pointed out, the real test will be whether Edwards drops out should he end up third in South Carolina.  That would be the real opportune moment for him to throw his support behind Obama.

January 14, 2008 12:03 AM

lymon1 said:

Ironically, I'd vote for Edwards in-part in hopes of keeping the convention open, but my suspicion that he'd throw in with Obama will probably keep me from doing so.  

January 14, 2008 10:23 AM