John Edwards to Quit Presidential Race

By NEDRA PICKLER
Associated Press Writer
DENVER (AP) -- Democrat John Edwards is exiting the presidential race Wednesday, ending a scrappy underdog bid in which he steered his rivals toward progressive ideals while grappling with family hardship that roused voters' sympathies but never diverted his campaign, The Associated Press has learned.

The two-time White House candidate notified a close circle of senior advisers that he planned to make the announcement at a 1 p.m. EST event in New Orleans that had been billed as a speech on poverty, according to two of his advisers. The decision came after Edwards lost the four states to hold nominating contests so far to rivals who stole the spotlight from the beginning - Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.

The former North Carolina senator will not immediately endorse either candidate in what is now a two-person race for the Democratic nomination, said one adviser, who spoke on a condition of anonymity in advance of the announcement.

Edwards waged a spirited top-tier campaign against the two better-funded rivals, even as he dealt with the stunning blow of his wife's recurring cancer diagnosis. In a dramatic news conference last March, the couple announced that the breast cancer that she thought she had beaten had returned, but they would continue the campaign.

Their decision sparked a debate about family duty and public service. But Elizabeth Edwards remained a forceful advocate for her husband, and she was often surrounded at campaign events by well-wishers and emotional survivors cheering her on.

Edwards planned to announce his campaign was ending with his wife and three children at his side. Then he planned to work with Habitat for Humanity at the volunteer-fueled rebuilding project Musicians' Village, the adviser said.

With that, Edwards' campaign will end the way it began 13 months ago - with the candidate pitching in to rebuild lives in a city still ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. Edwards embraced New Orleans as a glaring symbol of what he described as a Washington that didn't hear the cries of the downtrodden.

Edwards burst out of the starting gate with a flurry of progressive policy ideas - he was the first to offer a plan for universal health care, the first to call on Congress to pull funding for the war, and he led the charge that lobbyists have too much power in Washington and need to be reigned in.

The ideas were all bold and new for Edwards personally as well, making him a different candidate than the moderate Southerner who ran in 2004 while still in his first Senate term. But the themes were eventually adopted by other Democratic presidential candidates - and even a Republican, Mitt Romney, echoed the call for an end to special interest politics in Washington.

Edwards' rise to prominence in politics came amid just one term representing North Carolina in the Senate after a career as a trial attorney that made him millions. He was on Al Gore's short list for vice president in 2000 after serving just two years in office. He ran for president in 2004, and after he lost to John Kerry, the nominee picked him as a running mate.

Elizabeth Edwards first discovered a lump in her breast in the final days of that losing campaign. Her battle against the disease caused her husband to open up about another tragedy in their lives - the death of their teenage son Wade in a 1996 car accident. The candidate barely spoke of Wade during his 2004 campaign, but he offered his son's death to answer questions about how he could persevere when his wife could die.

Edwards made poverty the signature issue of both his presidential campaigns, and he led a four-day tour to highlight the issue in July. The tour, the first to focus on the plight of the poor since Robert F. Kennedy's trip 40 years earlier, also was an effort to remind voters that a rich man can care about the less fortunate. It came as Edwards was dogged by negative coverage of his personal wealth, including his construction of a 28,000-square foot house, his work for a hedge fund that advised the superrich and $400 haircuts.

But even through the dark days of summer and as Obama and Clinton collected astonishing amounts of money that dwarfed his fundraising effort, Edwards maintained a loyal following in the first voting state of Iowa that made him a serious contender. He came in second to Obama in Iowa, an impressive feat of relegating Clinton to third place, before coming in third in the following three contests.

The loss in South Carolina was especially hard because it was where he was born and he had won the state in 2004. But Edwards performed well enough to pick up 58 delegates.

If only Hillary will drop out.

She would rather set herself on fire than do that.

Really, her bullshit down in South Carolina.....I tell ya, alot of leftists finally saw the woman that many of us had known of for years and years.

She's just a total bitch.

What did she do in South Carolina? I didn't watch any coverage last night.

I'm assuming RR is referring to her getting teary-eyed/choked up on camera.

I'm glad Guiliani is done, even if it's not official yet. He grossly miscalculated his political capital and paid for not campaigning in New Hampshire & Iowa. He was good for NY and did an admirable job in the days after 9/11, but would have been a poor president IMO.

Edwards should not have run either. If he had been in the Senate since the '04 election, it would have bolstered his reputation. But he is just as inexperienced as he was in 2004.

Unfortunately for Edwards, I think his wife's sickness had a lot to do with his lack of support. She's not just sick; she's dying. And I don't think that anyone wanted to take a chance on putting someone in the White House who either recently lost his wife or was about to lose her.

I know that sounds cold, but I think it's true.

She has Stage 4 metastatic breast cancer and will probably die within 2 years or so.

I like a lot about Edwards. I think he is an honest individual who might be a good leader. But there was always a bigger part of me that thought he should just go home and take care of the wife for the rest of her short life. Especially since he is probably rich enough to put his life on hold and be with her.

So now look who's left to choose from. I think people are just sick of the Clintons, I just don't know about Obama and his experience and his beleifs. I think he's very young to be president.
Then for the Republicans, you have McCain who I do repect and Romney, who I just don't think Americans are going to elect a Mormon to the whitehouse.

I don't think that they are all together sick of her she keeps winning these primaries.

So is anyone at all watching the Republican debates tonight???? This is their third or fourth debate I think????? Pretty much lowkey compared to the Dem debates I think.



TIS

I'm not a big Presidential historian, but I'm afraid the Democrats will end up spliting support between Clinton and Obama and the eventual ticket will be weak. In the end they will lose to the Republicans. It remains to be seen who will be on the ticket, but back in '84 it was Mondale and Ferraro, and together they just didn't have the power to overcome Reagan.

I wish I knew that it was on cuz as of now I have no idea who I want to win.

I didn't watch all of this one, but it's on CNN. They usually replay it though. Check your listings for the time. The Dem debate is on tomorrow.


TIS

What time TIS?

Wow, I didn't know his wife was that sick. I actually like Edwards- but you are right, he should devote his time to his wife. He couldn't possibly be a good president with that on his shoulders. I always wondered why he didn't really get the support he deserved.

Mig,

Tonight's debate was 5:00 to 7:00 (Pacific Standard Time). I don't know about tomorrow's. I usually find it when I get home, but I'm guessing around the same time.


TIS

Grazie TIS!!

Personally I don't want to vote for someone who doesn't realize the thing to do in this situation is take care of your wife instead of trying to run for POTUS

That and the Clinton clique's sillyness.....where they basically put down the idea at black voters that a black candidate "can't win"....and well, they sorta disagreed in South Carolina.

McCain is booked as the GOP nominee, but damn...this report won't help him:

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/democrats-say-mccain-nearly-abandoned-gop-2007-03-28.html

Where's DoubleJ, when you need him, to go ballistic that his soon-to-be champion considered jumping brands this side of Hulk Hogan.

If hillary becomes president I dont know if i can listen to that voice for the next 4 years!

ds

If Hillary becomes President will she give out douche bags as tax breaks instead of a check?

Interesting article on the Delegate distribution process for the Democrats.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/03/MNE1UOVB1.DTL

What, you prefer autistic country bumpkin's voice instead? Please.

Super Tuesday Political Dashboard:

http://news.yahoo.com/election/2008/dashboard/?d=ST

Thanks Geoff. I find the Democrats delegate distribution so confusing. You can win the state but the delegates are split.

Anyway, what an exciting primary no???? Last I heard California won't have any final counts tonight due to some voting machine problems and absentee votes or such?????? Not sure really.





TIS

There seemed to be a lot of problems with voting machines throughout the country. I heard on the radio that Governor Corzine of NJ had to wait 45 minutes for a technician to fix his machine when it jammed this morning. And in NYC, when they tried to switch the machines from Democrat to Republican (and conversely), the machines would get stuck, and the people had to be given paper ballots.

I voted an absentee ballot this time, so avoided any problems. However, the last election I did encounter a problem. It was a touch screen, I went thru the process (this included California propositions as well, so I read through them, again even though I already did some studying) and then clicked "submit vote" and the machine totally went dark/dead.

I called the poll worker who fiddled with the machine and couldn't fix it. (I was pissed actually because I had heard about voting problems throughout the U.S.). She made a phone call to her superior and did some tweaking while on the phone, per the supervisor's suggestions, and it still didn't work. It took them about a half an hour before they finally told me to go to another machine, which I did and had no problem.


TIS

So who all voted today?

I don't vote till March 3rd.

I have to wait until late April. I think the nominees will be determined by then. Pennsylvania primaries are usually in May, and I never missed one, but I don't believe I ever voted in one where the race hadn't already been determined.