John Edwards Gives Endorsement to Obama

Now that Barack Obama is poised to win the Democratic nomination, the focus is now on whether he can win a general election, and the fear that Hillary Clinton's team will damage the Obama campaign further. Obama has already started picking up the superdelegates he needs to almost fatally wound the Clinton campaign. Now Obama needs to start picking up important endorsements from people that can help him in a general election against John McCain. To that end, John Edwards official endorsement of Obama today may or may not help.

Edwards was the last Democratic candidate to leave the race before it went down to Clinton and Obama. To many, Edwards was the most populist candidate in the Democratic race, as he attracted many lower class voters. The lower and working class voters are a demographic that Obama has had great difficulty trying to seal up. In particular, controversy has arisen on two fronts- whether Obama can attract white working class voters, and whether it is racist for the Clinton camp to keep talking about it in their attacks on Obama. Edwards may not make a huge dent in that issue if he campaigns for Obama, but in a close race against McCain, any additional supporters that Edwards can give Obama will be a substantial help.

In the long run, Edwards ability to make a difference for Obama will be in question. But in the here and now, Edwards may be a help to finally give Obama a winning majority in Democratic delegates. There are 3,524 possible pledged delegates among the primaries, not counting the 797 superdelegates. Obama has 1,599 pledged delegates, and Edwards has 18 that he could give Obama. If Obama gets those delegates, combined with the ones he will win in Kentucky and Oregon, it could give Obama a majority of pledged delegates over Clinton. With that made official, it would be easier for Obama to attract the remaining superdelegates needed to seal the nomination. So Edwards could be a help for Obama in the short term, at least.

Edwards may help Obama get more populist voters in the bigger states, but it is unclear at this early stage if it will be enough to make the big difference Obama needs. Edwards efforts as John Kerry's running mate in 2004 didn't give Kerry a big enough boost. In addition, Edwards took a long time to decide who to endorse, only choosing Obama when it became more clear he was going to defeat Clinton. So Edwards endorsement could just be a case of going with the current political winds.

Sources

CNN.com- "Edwards to endorse Obama" www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/05/14/edwards.obama/

MSNBC.com- First Read: "Edwards endorses Obama" firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/05/14/1021888.aspx