With all the back and forth between Clinton and Obama these days, Joe Trippi of Campaigns and Elections can’t help but wonder what would’ve happened if he would have told John Edwards to stay in the race. Yes, Edwards was far behind in the polls, yes he was facing a battle against two very historical candidates, but the drag the election makes a lot of people wonder what Edwards’ presence in the mix would mean. Would he have taken some of the undecided votes and superdelegates and received the nomination? Maybe he’d have been more of a key player…guess we’ll never know.
It was a longshot, to be sure, but there remained the chance of a three-way battle going all the way to the convention. I thought we could make a big dent in Ohio by appealing to middle-class working people. The same in places like Kansas, Colorado and the Dakotas. It was possible to make those a dead-heat for all three candidates in terms of delegate wins. And today, as I write this, I realize we might have had as many as 500 delegates heading into Pennsylvania and North Carolina, two states that would probably be strong for Edwards.
