John and Elizabeth Edwards sat in the front row of Barack Obama’s Raleigh, NC, speech today, where the presumptive Democratic nominee talked about the economy. “I don’t think there are two people in the country who have done more to elevate the debate about politics, who have focused on critical issues like health care, and who’ve made us all think about our obligations to create one America,” Senator Obama noted at the top of his speech.

When talking about his health care plan, Obama gestured towards Mrs. Edwards and told the approving crowd, “By the way, I’m gonna be partnering up with Elizabeth Edwards. We’re gonna be figuring all this out.”

While John Edwards endorsed Obama at a rally in Michigan last month, Elizabeth Edwards kept mum on her choice, causing many to speculate that she had in fact parted ways with her husband and supported Senator Clinton.

An Obama spokesperson noted this won’t be an official partnership.

Political endorsements, for all their promise of acquiring additional financial support, have long been seen as meaningless in swaying voters. Yet in this tight two-way Democratic presidential race between senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, there is one endorsement that may well determine the outcome of the race—that of former presidential candidate John Edwards.

Both Clinton and Obama all too clearly understand the impact his support will carry, and, of course, have courted him for several weeks. Obama reportedly expressed interest in Edwards’ endorsement before he even dropped from the race. Clinton said on Saturday that she intends to ask Edwards “to be a part of anything I do at the White House,” and praised his universal health care plan and commitment to fighting poverty.

Sources within the Edwards campaign have described the former North Carolina senator as “very torn” over whom to endorse, adding that he has been in talks with Clinton and Obama “for weeks”—a revelation that has surprised many, especially those who believed an Obama backing was inevitable. On the campaign trail and in debates, Edwards often criticized Clinton by labeling her “an agent of the status quo,” while aligning himself with Obama for advocating change.

Whoever ends up winning Edwards’ support will stand to gain both delegates and supporters, and the stakes are high in a race in which the three biggest primaries still lie ahead—Ohio, Pennsylvnia, and Texas. Though it is not clear whom he will choose, Edwards’ indecisiveness—assuming it is genuine—indicates he is not completely convinced yet that either candidate is best suited to take the White House. He will likely evaluate their candidacies based on the issues he devoted himself to—fighting poverty, offering universal health care, and standing up to big businesses and their powerful lobbies.

Whom do YOU think he will endorse? I welcome your comments.

Fox News has confirmed that former presidential contender, John Edwards, will meet with Barack Obama tomorrow at his home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss a potential endorsement—one that would surely impact the outcome of the Democratic presidential campaign as both Clinton and Obama compete for delegates in a tight two-way race. Senator Hillary Clinton met with Edwards on Thursday, though neither the Edwards nor Clinton campaign have disclosed details about the private meeting. Sources within the Edwards campaign described the former North Carolina senator as “very torn” over the decision, and declined to provide a time table as to when an endorsement will be made.

Sen Clinton praised her former rival John Edwards in blue collar Lewiston, ME — saying she’d want him to be a part of her White House.

Addressing a former Edwards backer who stood up to say she’d switched her support to the NY Senator, Hillary said she had a lot in common with Edwards. “”I will be a fighter,” she said, “and I intend to ask John Edwards to be a part of anything I do at the White
House.”

Earlier, she joined herself with the one-time VP nominee on the issue of health care, saying “I’m proud Sen Edwards and I decided to put ourselves on the line politically and said we’re going to be focused on achieving universal health care.” Obama, she says, did not.

Edwards has not endorsed a candidate since dropping out of the Democratic race, and his supporters have mostly split between the two front runners. Both Clinton and Obama have courted the fmr NC Senator, who might be counted on to deliver the working-class constituency he cultivated during the campaign.

Attending today’s event, one couldn’t help getting a sense of deja-vu: the lengthy QandA session at the end of the event, the blue and white signs that read simply “Ready.”, the focus on the economy and health care — all are vestiges of Hillary’s winning “I found my voice” strategy in New Hampshire. Clinton’s NH press secretary Kathleen Strand was even in attendence…she’s been reassigned to handle all of New England. The whole thing gave this Town Hall a very January 7th feel.

Standing before a crowd of supporters in the Ninth Ward neighborhood of New Orleans on Wednesday, John Edwards formally announced his plans to withdraw from the presidential race.

“It’s time for me to step aside so that history can blaze its path,” Edwards said.

Dressed in blue jeans, the former North Carolina senator ended his campaign in the place where it had begun. The setting was symbolic for a man who made poverty the soul of his campaign. His decision to withdraw came as a surprise to many—the American public, members of the press, and even those within Edwards’ campaign. Though the senator had yet to win a single primary, his advisers consistently stated they would continue campaigning all the way to the convention—hoping to acquire enough delegates to remain viable in the race. On Monday, the campaign announced an aggressive media buy in several of the states scheduled to hold February 5th contests, and boasted of the recent surge in online donations.

But today a different decision was reached. Campaign spokesman, Mark Kornblau, said Edwards realized “he had no real path to the nomination” at this point in the race and “it was time to step aside.” Kornblau said Edwards spoke with senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama the night before, asking them to make poverty a central issue in their general election campaigns and in their administrations. He added that Edwards had no plans to endorse a candidate as of yet.

Edwards may no longer hold a place on the presidential ballot, but his populism, often expressed with great zeal, has impacted the presidential race in innumerable ways, some of which have yet to be realized.

At the heart of Edwards’ message was the need to speak out for the poor and disenfranchised—those people whom the Senator often referred to as “the real underdogs in this election.” He was the first to propose a universal health care plan—ensuring coverage for all Americans—and the first among the Democratic candidates to make poverty and global warming a key focus of his campaign.

For Edwards, the need to combat these problems was a “moral test,” and he referred to such issues as “the causes of my life.”

Not without fault, Edwards was sometimes criticized for his changing positions on the Iraq war and for oversimplifying the problem of lobbyists. Yet he was honest in admitting that his initial support of funding the war “was a mistake.”

Upon leaving an event in Springfield, Missouri, on Monday, that drew over 1,000 Edwards supporters, a high-school English teacher related his message to a line from Shakespeare she had recently taught her 12th grade class.

“To thine ownself be true,” she said, quoting a famous line from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. “Edwards inspires because he’s pushed issues not always politically popular. And for that he deserves credit.”

Clinton Campaign Statement on John Edwards withdrawal from the Democratic Race:

“John Edwards ended his campaign today in the same way he started it - by standing with the people who are too often left behind and nearly always left out of our national debate.

John ran with compassion and conviction and lifted this campaign with his deep concern for the daily lives of the American people. That is what this election is about - it’s about our people. And John is one of the greatest champions the American people could ask for.

I wish John and Elizabeth all the best. They have my great personal respect and gratitude. And I know they will continue to fight passionately for the country and the people they love so deeply.”

Edwards called Clinton yesterday to say that dropping out of the race today was a possibility. He called again this morning to break the news officially, and she promised to keep his core issue of poverty in America at the forefront of the campaign.

Listen to what she had to say to reporters about Edwards here:

For months, John Edwards’ campaign has criticized the national media for representing the Democratic presidential campaign as a two-person race—focusing most of their attention on Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama while largely ignoring Edwards as a viable candidate. In an attempt to increase Edwards’ exposure in states scheduled to hold February 5th contests, the campaign announced an “aggressive media buy” in 10 states over the next 48 hours. The new television ads, they say, will give Edwards’ message more attention and help win him support.

In addition to heightened media exposure, the Edwards campaign has become increasingly focused on acquiring delegates–saying “the fight to the nomination is boiling down to the earning of delegates.” Despite his third place finish in three out of the four states to hold primaries, Edwards has accumulated a significant number of delegates and his advisers remains confident he will accumulate many more come Super Tuesday.

Edwards campaign spokesman, Eric Schultz, released a “Path to the Nomination” memo on Tuesday, which outlined the Senator’s strategy and described his network of support in key states, such as California, Missouri, Georgia, Minnesota, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. It also pointed to the fact that “Bill Clinton didn’t win a primary or caucus until Georgia. He didn’t clinch the nomination until he defeated Jerry Brown in New York in April,” and asserted that “this race will go to the candidate that can compete widely and over the long haul.”

After his third place finish in Saturday’s South Carolina primary, Edwards embarked on a fly-around to several February 5th states, beginning with a stop in Georgia, where Edwards touted his Southern roots and told voters he is the only Democratic contender who can win in a red state. At an outdoor rally in Dublin, Georgia, that drew a sizeable crowd of supporters, Senate Democratic leader, Robert Brown, described Edwards as a “marathon man,” adding that “a winner never quits and a quitter never wins.”

While addressing a crowd of 200 people in Bennettsville, South Carolina, John Edwards criticized Hillary Clinton for choosing to leave the state in the days before the January 26th primary.

Clinton left South Carolina after participating in Monday night’s Democratic presidential debate in Myrtle Beach to campaign in states scheduled to hold contests on February 5th.

“Right after the debate, she flew out and she’s been gone and she won’t be back until I don’t’ know—later in the week or until primary day,” Edwards said. “And the question is, if she’s not going to spend time here the week before the South Carolina primary, what do you think the chances are she’s coming back after the primary? And what are the chances she’s coming back when she’s president of the United States?”

In his criticism of Clinton’s absence, Edwards sought to depict her as a politician not genuinely committed to the needs of those living in rural South Carolina. He also characterized the rural South as “forgotten America,” emphasizing his Southern upbringing to persuade voters that he identifies with and understands their economic hardships.

“We need a president of the United States who actually understands your life. It’s one thing to fly into South Carolina from some place else, give a speech, go to a debate and then fly back out,” he said. “It is a very different thing to have lived here, to have grown up in this part of the country and to understand in a personal way what’s happening in your lives. I do.”

On the heels of Monday night’s Democratic presidential debate, John Edwards launched a new television ad on Tuesday to run in South Carolina, challenging his Democratic opponents on accepting lobbyist money—an issue that has become the touchstone of the former North Carolina senator’s grassroots campaign.

The 30-second ad, titled “What Happened,” begins with side-by-side images of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on the screen. The announcer says: “One gets more money than anyone from drug companies. The other one takes more money than anyone from Washington lobbyists. What’s happened to the Democratic Party?”

As the pictures changes to images of Edwards speaking before large crowds and mingling with supporters, the narrator continues: “The only one who’s never taken a dime from PACs or Washington lobbyists, who knows we’ve been ignored too long, who knows that rebuilding the middle class is more important than politics—our John Edwards. The only one.”

Edwards has centered his campaign on the principle of “taking back America.” He reasons that one cannot reduce the power of lobbyists who control Washington if he or she is accepting their money. While campaigning in Iowa in December, Edwards announced he would ban all corporate lobbyists and individuals who have lobbied for foreign governments from working in his administration, if elected.

In an attempt to make a comeback in a state he won during the 2004 primary election, Edwards will embark on a two-day “Back Roads, Back Home Barnstorm” of South Carolina on Wednesday, targeting small towns and rural communities in the hopes that his populist message will resonate among rural voters. During Monday night’s debate, Edwards argued that he is the only Democratic candidate who can “go everywhere and compete head-to-head” with the Republican nominee, including in places like the rural South—a demographic, he said, the Democrats cannot afford to lose in the general election.

“We can’t concede places like South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Missouri,” Edwards said.

“We always do well in Chicago, or New York, or Los Angeles, Seattle. We do well in the big urban areas. The question is: Are we competitive in the rural areas, in the tougher places for Democrats to compete?”

On the eve of Martin Luther King Day—just moments before the start of the Democratic presidential debate in South Carolina—John Edwards’ campaign released a letter sent by King’s son, Martin Luther King III, to the former North Carolina senator, praising him for his commitment to end poverty and injustice and calling for all candidates to emulate his initiative.

“I want to challenge all candidates to follow your lead, and speak up loudly and forcefully on the issue of economic justice in America,” King wrote. “My dad was a fighter…Keep fighting. My father would be proud.”

Edwards and King held a private meeting at the King Center in Atlanta on Saturday, and though details of that encounter were not disclosed to the press, the two men discussed Dr. King’s legacy and their “shared commitment to fighting poverty,” according to Mark Kornblau, a spokesman for Edwards’ campaign.

In his letter, King addressed the aims of Edwards’ campaign mission: “I appreciate that on the major issues of health care, the environment, and the economy, you have framed the issues for what they are - a struggle for justice. And, you have almost single-handedly made poverty an issue in this election.”

The letter could not have come at a more opportune time for Edwards, who was asked at the end of Monday night’s debate, “If Dr. Martin Luther King were alive today…why do you think he would or why should he endorse you?”

Without hesitation, Edwards said he has focused his cause on the “two biggest issues that Dr. King stood for, which are the issues of equality and ending poverty in America.”

(more…)