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 Edwards
Endorses Obama
by The Associated Press
Posted: May 14, 2008 - 7:30 pm ET
(Grand Rapids, Michigan) Democrat John Edwards
endorsed former rival Barack Obama on Wednesday, a move designed to help
solidify support for the party's likely presidential nominee even as Hillary
Rodham Clinton refuses to give up her long-shot candidacy.
Edwards made a surprise
appearance with Obama in Grand Rapids, Mich., as the Illinois
senator campaigns in a critical general election battleground
state.
The endorsement came a day
after Clinton defeated Obama by more than 2-to-1 in the West
Virginia primary. The loss highlighted Obama's challenge in
winning over the "Hillary Democrats" - white,
working-class voters who also supported Edwards in significant
numbers before he exited the race in late January.
Edwards, who received a
thunderous ovation when Obama introduced him to a crowd of
several thousand, said, "brothers and sisters, we must
come together as Democrats" to defeat McCain. "We
are here tonight because the Democratic voters have made their
choice, and so have I."
He said Obama "stands with
me" in a fight to cut poverty in half within 10 years.
Edwards also praised Clinton,
saying "we are a stronger party" because of her
involvement, and "we're going to have a stronger nominee
in the fall because of her work."
He said Clinton is a
"woman who is made of steel. She is a leader in this
country not because of her husband but because of what she has
done."
Clinton campaign chairman Terry
McAuliffe said in a statement, "We respect John Edwards,
but as the voters of West Virginia showed last night, this
thing is far from over."
Edwards, a former North
Carolina senator and the 2004 vice presidential nominee,
finished second to Obama in the Iowa caucus in early January
before coming in third in the following three contests. He
dropped out in New Orleans, the location a reminder of his
attention to poverty.
Both Obama and Clinton
immediately asked Edwards for his endorsement, but he stayed
mum for more than four months. His endorsement would have
carried far more clout if he had made it in February, when the
Obama-Clinton outcome was very much in doubt.
A person close to Edwards,
speaking on condition of anonymity, said he wanted to get
involved now to begin unifying the party. Obama also signed on
to Edwards' anti-poverty initiative, which he launched Tuesday
with the goal of reducing poverty in the United States by half
within 10 years.
When he made his decision,
Edwards didn't even tell many of his former top advisers
because he wanted to inform Clinton personally, said the
person close to him. Edwards' wife, Elizabeth, who has said
she thinks Clinton has the superior health care plan, did not
travel with him to Michigan and is not part of the
endorsement.
David "Mudcat"
Saunders, a chief adviser for Edwards on rural affairs during
his presidential campaign, said the endorsement should take
some sting out of Obama's resounding loss in West Virginia.
"For Barack Obama, I think
he ought to kiss Johnny Edwards on the lips to kill this
41-point loss," Saunders said.
Edwards waged a scrappy
underdog campaign for the Democratic nomination, always
outshone by the historic nature of Obama possibly being the
first black nominee and Clinton the first woman. He continued
to campaign after the family disclosed that Elizabeth's breast
cancer had returned.
Obama has 1,887 delegates,
leaving him 139 delegates short of the 2,026 needed to clinch
the nomination. Clinton has 1,718 delegates, according to the
latest tally by The Associated Press.
Edwards has 19 pledged
delegates won in three states: Iowa, New Hampshire and South
Carolina. Most of the those delegates have already been
selected, meaning they are technically free to support
whomever they choose at the party's national convention,
regardless of Edwards' endorsement.
©365Gay.com 2008
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