Reply #60: Respectfully, I did not get that impression from the speech [View All]

[karynnj]

Those speeches are even tough to watch. I remember watching when Gephardt gave his in 2004 - in tears. I taped Kerry's and watched it a few days later. It didn't matter if I was for the person - Gephardt was never my choice and Kerry the person I was happiest to cast a vote for in my life. In both cases, it is a pretty abrupt loss of dreams they likely had for years and they are called upon to stand in public, thank their supports, and to try to give some meaning to the fight itself - more for those that cared than themselves.

To me Edwards is a proud, optimistic, confident man, for whom conceding that it wasn't going to happen had to be extremely hard. On top of it, his father-in -law's health problems may already have been in play and, as we know, Elizabeth Edwards is struggling with a truly awful diagnosis - and they have small children. Also consider that he had worked like a dog for the last several months - and pretty hard since 2004. I would bet that he simply memorized what he had to say and spoke it almost by rote - to connect less to the moment too make it less painful.

I assume it was his decision - he hadn't gained momentum and he was heading into a day where 20 states were up. He did not have the resources and there were too many to actually go to all of them.