Look how quickly Edwards tanked in the primaries, too. I never thought that he would bring along many votes to Obama when he decided to endorse.

A man who gets $400 hair cuts and lives in a mansion has no chance of being a working-class hero; the first criteria for being a working-class hero is intimate familiarity with the rigors of living hand-to-mouth. Can you say "I feel your pain"?

The bill for Senator Clinton's hair cut comes in at $1200 and some change.  If that's the criteria, than Clinton should have left this race immediately after entering it seeing how she's easily 3X as unqualified to represent working people compared with Edwards.

Endorsements from other national politicians almost never make a meaningful difference in the voting booth, so that doesn't make Edwards any less relevant than any other sitting or ex-Senator.  Bob Casey won PA in a landslide, but his endorsement for Obama didn't change the outcome of that primary.  Evan Bayh certainly didn't deliver a landslide for Clinton in IN.  The only endorsemnets that matter to a meaningful degree in those contests are from popular governors, mayors, and local leaders that are well-entrenched in the state and local political machinery.

I'm pretty sure Bill Clinton has endorsed Hillary this time around and has probably been to hundreds if not a thousand more public and private events in nearly every state in an effort to make sure everybody eligible to vote knew it too, while Edwards kept a very low profile during the same time span.  That sure didn't change anybody's mind in the month of February even though Bill held very favorable approval ratings in many of those states during his Presidency.  

If Edwards is such a meaningless loser who's blessing was worth so little, than why were Clinton and Obama taking turns flying in and out of Chapel Hill in an obvious effort sustained over the past 4 months to gain his endorsement?  And just what candidate during the course of this race, or for that matter any race since William Jennings Bryan  was running actually has been regarded as some ironclad icon by the working class?

Crowley, Kucinich did everything short of staging a rally to set fire to the actual signed NAFTA agreement in an effort to become the "working class hero", and he got a whole <1% which is probably right around what that other "hero", Ralph Nader, will likely get come November.  With "winners" like those two, I think I'd be embracing Edwards regardless whether he passed somebody's "hero" test or not if I were Obama at this stage.      

I agree with your conclusion, not to say Edwards isn't a good politician, or isn't trying to look out for the people, I'm really just trying to say he's no Bill C. "I feel your pain" folk hero.