The Urban Elf

The Democratic Presidential Primary is now finally under way after a year of needless posturing that left many voters bored and bitter well before the first polls opened. Yet now, less than a week before “Super Tuesday” when Democratic voters will at last have a chance to impact the decision making process in real numbers and with delegates that will truly count a rumor is circulating in the news media that John Edwards is backing out of the race. This would leave only two major candidates from which to choose when voters in 22 states walk into the booth next week. If Mr. Edwards is indeed declining the field at this early stage of the actual selection process I must ask why? By removing himself from the debate he sacrifices a key opportunity to keep some of the issues with which he is particularly identified alive and active in that debate. He may not foresee winning, but his poll numbers in the upcoming electoral-palooza would be a significant indicator of how important some of his old school blue-collared liberalism stances are to the party at large and bolster their chances of inclusion in the platform eventually hammered out come convention time. In the face of this I can’t help but wonder… Is he trying to force the two horse race of Hillary and Barack to become a bitter game of Rock’em Sock’em Robots in an attempt to so alienate them from each other in the public eye that neither as eventual winner can believably ask the other to take the second chair on the ticket in November leaving the grinning former senator as the only logical choice for Vice President?

Inquiring minds want to know.