To Edwardse kralju
Frisko sa CNNa:
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- Former Sen. John Edwards dropped out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination on Wednesday.
"It is time for me to step aside so that history can blaze its path," Edwards said in New Orleans, the same city where he first declared his run for the 2008 Democratic presidential race.
With his wife, Elizabeth, and children at his side, Edwards said he couldn't predict "who will take the final steps to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.," but he said it would be a Democrat.
"We must do better if we want to live up to the promise of this country we love so much," he said.
Earlier, an Edwards aide said the candidate was not getting the media attention he needed to get his message out and win delegates, especially with races coming up in 22 states next Tuesday.
Edwards has amassed 26 delegates for the Democratic nomination.
Campaign money was not an issue, the aide said
Edwards has trailed Sens. Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois in the early contests, including a third-place finish in Tuesday's Florida primary with 14 percent of the votes. He also came in third in key races in New Hampshire and South Carolina.
An aide said Edwards does not plan to endorse either Clinton or Obama at this time but he may do so in the future.
Edwards said he has spoken with Obama and Clinton and received their pledge to make poverty a top issue of their campaigns and -- if either reaches the White House -- a central part of their administration.
Reacting earlier to Edwards' plans, Obama praised his former rival.
"At a time when our politics is too focused on who's up and who's down, he made a nation focus again on who matters -- the New Orleans child without a home, the West Virginia miner without a job, the families who live in that other America that is not seen or heard or talked about by our leaders in Washington," Obama said Wednesday.
Clinton called Edwards a champion of the American people.
"John Edwards ended his campaign today in the same way he started it -- by standing with the people who are too often left behind and nearly always left out of our national debate," Clinton said in a statement.
Some political pundits predict Edwards' supporters are more likely to lean in Obama's direction.
"The conventional wisdom is that Barack Obama will pick up maybe 60 percent of them, and in some places, that makes a huge difference," former presidential adviser David Gergen said.
Time magazine journalist Joe Klein said, "I don't think he endorses Hillary Clinton. The question is whether or not he endorses Barack Obama."
Klein contends that Clinton "represents a lot of the things that [Edwards] campaigned against, you know, the old Washington Democratic establishment that he believes got too close to the corporations in the '90s."
UUUU da li je ovo vise boba za Obamu???? Vecina analiticara je i ranije predvidjala da je to tako.
Btw, najfriskija anketa (objavljena danas) u Connecticutu, drzavi u kojoj je Hillary do prije 7 dana derala guzove Obami sa 20%+ boba, stavlja Clintonovu i Obamu potpuno izjednacene 40%-40%, sa Edwardsom na 11%.
Da li je Connecticut, koji je prakticno 'predgradje' Hillarinog NYC pokazatelj tektonskih izmjena u volji javnog mijenja? Jos kad uzmemo u obzir da je danas Pretty Boy ispao iz trke stvari izgledaju mnogo bolje za Obamu.
