About Edwards suspending his campaign...here's what I think is the likeliest reason.

[BreweryYardRat]

It seems to me that Elizabeth probably has taken a turn for the worse. :( John is probably suspending the campaign to be with her, and keeping quiet about the reason to prevent a possible media circus that might make the situation even worse.

Because John Edwards is not the kind of man who would put his campaign above his wife's health. And that is a better endorsement than anyone on the Republican side can have.

And he said he was "suspending" the campaign...meaning that if Elizabeth gets better (and with any luck, she will) he could conceivably jump back into the race.

[Yukari Yakumo]

1. I'm thinking it may be a number of reasons

Your suggestion could be one of them.

Another one is when they crunched the numbers, they realized they simply didn't have the money or the resources to remain competitive against both HRC and BHO.

Third theory; They realize all he may accomplish is to piss off the establishment and mainstream Dems, especially if he is being perceived as letting his ego get the better of him. This will annihilate any political capital Edwards have have had and end his political career.

Another theory: Avoid total embarrassment, and thus preserve their message. If he got thoroughly beaten across the board this Tuesday, the value of him and his platform becomes almost worthless. Edwards may have gotten internal polling done and saw his prospects for Tuesday as dire, at bast.

[Levgreee]

2. He explicitally said it wasn't for that reason, although perhaps he just wants to keep it private nt

[BreweryYardRat]

4. Really? Did I miss a line in his speech?

[Levgreee]

5. it might not have been in his speech, look around nt

[MonkeyFunk]

3. I don't see why people need to speculate

He was doing poorly, and saw that he wasn't going to improve his standing next week. So he dropped out.

[cgrindley]

6. He quit because he didn't win fuck all... that's why he quit

because he couldn't win. It's not rocket science. He was losing.

[and-justice-for-all]

7. Ok, that makes me feel a little bit better...

sounds realistic and quite possible.

[John Q. Citizen]

8. Edwards was frozen out just like Kucinich was frozen out. It's pretty obvious.

John Edwards isn't just the most electable Democrat—he's the best choice. But the media is starving him of the oxygen campaigns require in order to thrive: coverage. Shortly after placing second in Iowa, the Project for Excellence in Journalism found that John Edwards received a puny 7 percent of national media coverage. Clinton and Obama got between four and five times more; their poll numbers were nowhere close to that much higher than Edwards'.

"The media goes to this very engaging story about a legitimate woman candidate and a legitimate candidate with an African-American heritage, and that drives up their fund-raising numbers," Elizabeth Edwards told Time. "Then the media folks say, 'See, that proves we were right to focus on these two candidates'... It's enough to make you tear your hair out."

The New York Times' own public editor conceded that his paper had shortchanged Edwards. "In Iowa ... John Edwards is close behind Clinton in the most recent Des Moines Register poll," Clark Hoyt wrote on Nov. 18, "yet The Times has given him comparatively scant coverage. Clinton and Obama have been profiled twice each on the front page since Labor Day, but Edwards not at all this year. Throughout the paper, The Times has published 47 articles about Clinton since Labor Day, only 18 about Edwards."

"I don't track our coverage by quantity," campaign editor Richard Stevenson responded. "In a qualitative sense, we've covered him pretty thoroughly, and there is more to come."

There wasn't.

http://www.boiseweekly.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A310690

[ClintonTyree]

9. Corporate Amerika wasn't going to let Edwards.....

get anywhere near the White House. Gotta' keep the "pro-business" atmosphere that's doing SOOOOO well for the country intact.

I don't think it has anything to do with the Mrs.'s health. He just wasn't making a dent in the Obama "hope" offensive or the Clinton "business as usual" mantra. He was a victim of our media.

[BreweryYardRat]

10. Yeah, but I think he'd have stayed in until the convention -- or at least Super Tuesday...

...if it was just being ignored by the media.

But family matters -- that's a whole different can of worms.

[BreweryYardRat]

11. *kick*

:kick: