As a result of a website snafu, John Edwards has begun his race to win the Presidency a day early.
Former Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards jumped into the presidential race Wednesday a day earlier than he’d planned, prodded by an Internet glitch to launch a candidacy focused on health care, poverty and other domestic issues.
The North Carolina Democrat’s campaign accidentally went live with his election Web site a day before an announcement Thursday that was scheduled to use Hurricane-ravaged New Orleans as a backdrop.
The slip-up gave an unintended double-meaning to his campaign slogan on the John Edwards ’08 Web site: “Tomorrow begins today.”
While it’s certainly no surprise that Edwards is giving the Presidency another shot, the way things are stacking up now I’d be very surprised if he made it very far in the nominating process. He’s polling well now, but that’s more to do with name recognition than anything. Edwards’ best shot, in my opinion, would be if Obama decides not to. Barring somebody digging up a nasty skeleton in Obama’s past, I’m forced to agree with the conventional wisdom that it will come down to Obama and Clinton.
Now, if Obama doesn’t run, and Clinton does run, then Edwards may have a better shot, because he will likely serve as the rallying candidate for all of the anti-Hillary voters in the Democratic Party. And that’s assuming that no strong Democratic governors make a run at the White House. Even so, I think he has a tough job ahead of him, primarily because he hasn’t really done anything in the past two years. Edwards’ decision to give up his Senate seat probably assured him the VP nomination in 2004, but I think that it really hurts his chances in 2008.
