Reply #129: What good was the free media if he didn't even start to make gains until

[AP]

the last three days of each primary...when he was running ads, making personal appearances, and getting less whorish local media coverage?

Seriously, before the last three days of the campaign, it's mostly national media that they get. According to mediatenor.org, for Edwards that meant mostly nice "personality" stories, and nothing about his stance on the issues, and not even horserace coverage (he was relegated to, "he's VP materia"l -- which isn't even horserace coverage). The result? Single digit poll numbers. But in the last three days when people learned about his stance on the issues, boom. Geometric increases in the polls (while other candidates went down as a result of non-mediated up-close looks).