I focused on the motivation to run for office in the Edwards campaign; however I came across more information on his motivation for exiting the race as he did. Despite the efforts of his senior campaign strategists to keep him in the race at least through Super Tuesday, he dropped out of the race 6 days before. Edwards’s senior campaign strategists believed that if the former North Carolina Senator would continue to gain delegates through Super Tuesday particularly in the south. His campaign had focused much of their strategy to winning delegates in the Southern states which would provide Edwards with a position to directly influence the identity of the nominee. Edwards’s deputy campaign manager Jonathan Prince was convinced that he would continue to race but it was not the case.
It was fairly obvious that Edwards was struggling and would continue to struggle to keep up with the other two democratic candidates. With the 3rd place finish in South Carolina, which is Edwards’s home state, and a disappointing loss in New Hampshire and Nevada, I believe Edwards must have personally lost some steam in the race. As my fellow blogger Jason mentioned below, Edwards’s wife Elizabeth was also dealing with some medical issues and may have contributed to Edwards bowing out early. But I think it is safe to assume that Edwards leaving the race was more of a personal choice than that of his campaign and many in his campaign may have not expected him to leave when he did. Despite a good show in the 2004 presidential primaries and coming fairly close to becoming the next Vice President that same year, perhaps Edwards decided he was the long shot and lost some momentum in his desire for office.
Now that Edwards has withdrawn from the race we are left with several questions; who Edwards will give his endorsement to in the Democratic Party? And which candidate, Clinton or Obama, has benefited and is going to continue to benefit from this early departure?
Courtney Bellmer
Link: http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2008/01/edwards_to_leave_presidential.html
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4 comments:
I wonder if Edwards would even endorse at all. A good amount of the super delegates as of now are choosing to stay neutral because of the race being so close and to hopefully avoid a bitterly divided convention. I know Al Gore is opting to stay put so as to not help fire the internal Democratic battle. But then again, Obama did fly to NC to have a private meeting with Edwards this past weekend, so we'll see...
-Riza Alvarez
Very interesting blog Courtney. In your opinion, who do you think he will choose to endorse?
Kristin Herron
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