sonnova millworker

I go away for a few days and John Edwards endorses Obama. This after months of will-he won't-he and are-we-really-bothered-anymore.

I'm not really sure what Edwards's game has been, if he had one. He missed the chance to make a truly influential endorsement earlier on, and yet he's decided he doesn't want to try for above-it-all party elder either. Still, he gave a good speech today, including a generous tribute to Clinton (in fact it sounded more heartfelt and personal than the one he gave Obama, to these ears).

Will his endorsement make a difference? Well, not to the nomination process - except to push Obama's embarrassing West Virginia defeat out of the headlines - and possibly not to the general either. I know he's meant to have a hotline to the working class white voters that Obama has difficulties with (or who have difficulties with Obama) but we heard the same thing about Ted Kennedy's hotlines to blue collars and Hispanics and look how that worked out. Having said that, Edwards is a formidable campaigner and a great salesman - and thus will make a useful surrogate for Obama in the general.

What will he be expecting in return? A place on the ticket? More likely Attorney-General, I think.