John Edwards out

By Libby Spencer

I see Edward has already broken the news that John Edwards will withdraw from the race, so I'll so I'll skip most of the quotes and go straight to my reaction.

I'm sorry to hear this. Although he never built up enough steam to get his train rolling, he's been invaluable in injecting progressive issues into the debate. They say he plans to stay in NOLA to work on a Habitat for Humanity project.

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.

It's difficult to figure why Edwards campaign never took off with progressives. He was voicing our concerns and willing to buck the establishment to promote them. Certainly his failure to acheive any crossover momentum was partly driven the hateful media vendetta against him but his failure to energize 'the left,' including myself, always surprised me.

I never could quite put my finger on why I didn't see a champion for our cause in him. In retrospect, I have to think that in some part, it all went wrong when he allowed himself to be browbeaten by the right wing rage machine into firing Amanda and Melissa. I was really encouraged when he hired them and extremely disappointed when he let them go. It made it difficult to believe he could lead us, when he caved so quickly to the fringers. I think subconsciouly, I never quite got over it. I have a feeling, I'm not the only one. [via]

(Cross-posted at The Impolitic.)