John Edwards is dropping out this afternoon.
Prepare for thousands of diaries on DailyKos and MyDD with this as their general theme:
Seriously though, this is a shame that was going to happen for a long time. Edwards was the last progressive voice in the race and a lot of liberal Democrats will be left with hard choices between two candidates that don’t really share their political values.
Update:
I think it’s worth nothing that other than Chris Dodd, John Edwards was the candidate whose political views I found most similar to my own. Edwards brought progressivism and populism to the presidential race unlike any other candidate. As such, he was able to validate a political analysis about corporate power and economic disparities on the national stage. The Democratic field is less ideologically diverse with Edwards’ exit and that is a bad thing at this stage in the primary in this blogger’s view.
Hold Fast 
1) Booooo. Even for someone who likes Obama this sucks. There’s no question that my Feb. 5th decision would have been defined by tension between a) Edwards the platform and Obama the voice, and b) Please no Hillary so go with Obama. That is, but for Hillary’s candidacy I would have been more of an Edwards supporter.
2) I can’t wait until next week to see where Edwards’s supporters go. My gut says they’ll split with a slight relative bump to Obama.
3) Can White Men Jump on board with a black man or white woman? I think that metric will be important for seeing how powerful a McCain candidacy will be. I think it’s safe to say that McCain would attract men to vote for him, second perhaps only to Jack Bauer.
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Matt,
That lolcat killed me. Very funny stuff, and good thoughts about Edwards as well.
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How cute! How cute! Little Cat A with Little Cat B! Loved the cats, Matt. Umm, sorry channeling Dr. Seuss for a sec there.
I am one of the weeping Edwards supporters tonight. Though I cringe over the vitriol I’ve been reading on Koz and Smirking Chimp from very upset JRE people. To them I say: Jesus, grow up guys. The Edwards campaign was on life support for quite a while you should have been prepared. Get over it and pick a new candidate.
That said, I think his candidacy elevated the level of political discourse in this country. Yeah, I know, high praise, but true. We, with our notoriously short attention spans, and embarrassingly superficial understanding of history, especially 20th century history forgot about, or misunderstood American Populism, thinking it that corny, patriotic stuff from old Capra movies starring Jimmy Stewart. With Republicans doing all in their diabolical power for the last 30 years to dismantle the New Deal, substituting it with their Reagan Raw Deal, and setting the stage for a possible repeat of the economic woes of the 1930’s, America damn well needed someone to reacquaint her with populism. One of the persistent myths of this country is that we are a classless society with unlimited social mobility. So I thank John Edwards for opening some eyes, and pushing Obama and Clinton to address these issues, and I pray his influence continues to be felt in Democratic politics, not simply this election.
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