John Edwards Exits Doing The Right Thing

John Edwards exits the presidential race having done the right thing -- the right thing in having run the way he did and the right thing in leaving when he does.

The Democratic race has been, for better or for worse, a two candidate race since New Hampshire primarily because the voters so deemed it. As we go into Tsunami Tuesday, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are locked in a death struggle to redefine the past and the future, respectively, of American politics and the debilitated Edwards would enter the fray only as unpredictable wild card -- if not a spoiler.

His decision to exit comes, therefore, at the precise moment that demands absolute clarity among Democratic voters. The stakes are stark and so must be the choices. Kudos to Edwards for getting out of the way as that moment arrives.

Kudos also to Jon Edwards for the worthy campaign he ran and for the positive effect it had on all the other campaigns. We can speculate all we want -- and really to no end -- how and why the multi-millionaire one-time moderate Southern Democrat somehow transformed himself into a firebrand populist. But examining motivation in politics is usually a pretty worthless exercise.

More importantly, Edwards' boldly stated and sharply argued positions helped drive and shape the entire Democratic presidential race, exercising a significant gravitational pull on all of the campaigns. It was crucial that for a solid year Edwards was up there unabashedly apologizing for his vote to authorize the war in Iraq, that he was the first -- and very early -- to put forward a comprehensive health care program, that from the presidential stump he raised the profile and celebrated the role of organized labor, that he fearlessly and more relentlessly than any other major presidential candidate in recent history denounced the corporate stranglehold on both our economic and political life. Most importantly, Edwards showed no hesitation in highlighting the otherwise unspeakable in American politics -- the forgotten poor.

The positions taken by Edwards forced all of the candidates to at least recognize these issues and better address them and for that he deserves a special place in the history of the already remarkable Campaign 08.

As to what effect his exit will have is anybody's guess -- at least until next Tuesday. The Conventional Wisdom is that Edwards staying in would have siphoned off white voters from Clinton and would have helped Obama -- that dropping out now indirectly aids Hilary.

This could be the case, but frankly I doubt it. The pollsters have gotten much of this contest wrong and this perhaps is one more stumble. I have no numbers, no surveys no stats to prove my hunch. I only have my experience as a reporter attending myriad Edwards rallies and events starting back more than a year again. And all I can say is that I don't have the impression that these voters somehow belong to Clinton as a second choice. The message of promise change, of a change-over of a historic transition in American politics as now embodied in Obama resonates much deeper among them then the conventional frame of the Clinton campaign.

Nor do I believe that there is much goodwill inside the Edwards campaign to give any support to Clinton. As I write this, I hear Edwards' top rural advisor, Dave "Mudcat" Saunders saying on MSNBC: "I will do everything in my power so he doesn't endorse Hillary Clinton."

John Edwards leave the race in the same noble posture with which he entered it thirteen months ago.

Comments

[DavidMG]

The RIGHT THING RIGHT NOW is for him to endorse Barak because Hill has a good chance of beating him.

[mrJJ]

Introducing our new Democratic Secretary Of Labor..... John Edwards

Better than the AG title

[Star123]

I felt sick when I heard he had quit. I knew he couldn't win--after all, his hair was too nice andhis house too large. But he was my candidate! I trusted him to the extent I trust any of them anymore. Last nite, for the first time in nine years, I turned off MSNBC and watched the Judges (Judy, Alex, and Joe). At least when something is stupid and wrong, they say it out loud. Now we will get the nutty albino for sure! Iran better build those bomb shelters.

[mrJJ]

Clinton Remained Silent As Wal-Mart Fought Unions

Tapes Reviewed by ABC News Show Clinton As a Loyal Company Woman

In six years as a member of the Wal-Mart board of directors, between 1986 and 1992, Hillary Clinton remained silent as the world's largest retailer waged a major campaign against labor unions seeking to represent store workers.

Wal-Mart's anti-union efforts were headed by one of Clinton's fellow board members, John Tate, a Wal-Mart executive vice president who also served on the board with Clinton for four of her six years.

Tate was fond of repeating, as he did at a managers meeting in 2004 after his retirement, what he said was his favorite phrase, "Labor unions are nothing but blood-sucking parasites living off the productive labor of people who work for a living."

An ABC News analysis of the videotapes of at least four stockholder meetings where Clinton appeared shows she never once rose to defend the role of American labor unions.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4218509&page=1

[hchriste]

I supported Mr. Edwards from day 1, he had the correct message and his ideas would move big bussiness back to being suject to the government and no longer running the government. I have not much confidence in any candidate on either party as all seem to have been bought off by special intrests. To Bad for us.

[melonman]

It's not the voters who deemed Edwards' departure as much as the media and his inability to compete financially with the special interest groups supporting Clinton and Obama.

Unfortunately, the voters vote for who's on TV.

[Listen2me]

I also intend to do the right thing. I'm going to spend the next six days trying to spark a DRAFT RUSS FEINGOLD movement in the Minnesota caucuses.

[uabear315]

I was at the Edwards rally today on the front row. Here are some pictures and video from the event. http://gumbofile.wordpress.com/2008/01/30/john-edwards-out-mccain-in/

[zigzag1]

John Edwards would be a great Supreme Court Justice..he's fought for the common man all his life, and he could really make a difference for the rest of his life.

[HeadScratcher]

One of the saddest aspects of John Edwards' campaign is the failure of organized labor to rally behind him. He championed their cause - unabashedly - but wasn't rewarded for his advocacy. It's too bad that labor decided to play the establishment game instead of throwing their support to Edwards.

This is another example of labor voting against their own better interests. Had Edwards had the backing he deserved, he might have finished stronger in the first few primaries and had enough juice to stay until the end.

For the umpteenth time, labor needs to evaluate whether they choose to remain a force in national politics or become another pawn to the establishment.

[Giordano Bruno]

Like many of my fellow Edwards supporters tonight, I feel lost. I loved the way that he kept pushing that stupid bolder up the hill, just like the mythical Sisyphus. And how he spoke up for the least of us. And while he may not have been crucified in quite the same way as Jesus, the MSM did everything they could to destroy him because they are an integral part of the corporatocracy.

John wanted fundamental change. He was not interested in rhetorical change. Nor did he care to define his core values as a negative reaction to the failures of the past 8 years. Instead he offered us another vision. A vision very much harkening back to another era. His ideas were ironically somewhat reactionary in the sense that he wanted to rediscover an America where the playing field was more level, where the midde class might even prosper rather than disappear in order to support the plutocrats who are so interdependent with the government that it is impossible to tell them apart, and most probably because they are the same people.

I wish John had stayed in the race, but I suspect that there are some noble reasons for him pulling out, and they are not to "get on the Obama train before it is too late" nor because he lacked the stamina or integrity to stand for what he believed. I for one believe it has a lot to do with a resignation to how incredibly rigged the system really is. More than even he imagined.

John boy, you did us proud. And tonight I understand why my father had tears in his eyes when Adlai Stevenson failed the second time. You may not win the White House, but you won Giordy's heart. Get some rest. And thank Elizabeth for all of us. You two are amazing. Giordy

[rob112552]

What happened to that promise John Edwards made to stay in the race until the very end? I am so sad to hear today that he has withdrawn his candidacy.

[neworleanslady68]

I am so impressed that John Edwards chose to end his campaign in New Orleans. I am embarrassed to admit it now, but when he BEGAN his campaign in New Orleans, I kind of thought maybe he was just using us for the photo op. Now, however, I can see that he was sincere; otherwise, he would not have bothered coming to New Orleans for today's announcement when he'd already scheduled events elsewhere.

I guess Edwards ACTUALLY did give a damn about NOLA.

[candlegravity]

How all the Hillary supporters out there can get past the fact that she would never admit that supporting the war was a mistake is beyond me! At least Edwards had a pair and could see the flaws in his past. I don't want another leader unwilling to admit he/she can make mistakes. This just proves to me that Hillary won't listen to anyone except herself.
My full support goes to Obama from here on out.

[rixhex56]

This is a sad event for our nation. There was ONLY one candidate remaining who was addressing, in any REAL manner, the issues that can actually bring the change people SUPPOSEDLY want: John Edwards.

Now we have a six-of-one-half-a-dozen-of-the-other election, and very little, if anything, will really change. This failure of our citizenry to recognize the corporate plague we have contracted could very well mark the beginning of the end for this country.

There is a great article by Jeffrey Kaplan called "Consent of the Governed" (Orion.org) http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/132/ which quotes de Tocqueville, and from which I quote:

"The friends of democracy should keep their eyes anxiously fixed," he warned, on an "industrial aristocracy....For if ever again permanent inequality of conditions and aristocracy make their way into the world it will have been by that door that they entered." Under those conditions, he thought, life might very well be worse than it had been under the old regimes of Europe. The old land-based aristocracy of Europe at least felt obliged "to come to the help of its servants and relieve their distress. But the industrial aristocracy¦ when it has impoverished and brutalized the men it uses, abandons them in a time of crisis."

Alexis de Tocqueville was right. Quotes below are not necessarily in the above-mentioned article:

What is most important for democracy is not that great fortunes should not exist, but that great fortunes should not remain in the same hands. In that way there are rich men, but they do not form a class.
---Alexis de Tocqueville

The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.
---Alexis de Tocqueville

On this point, the power of the press, de Tocqueville was wrong (or is wrong today):

The power of the periodical press is second only to that of the people.
---Alexis de Tocqueville