AP: Mood somber at Edwards HQ as staff waits for campaign's end

[bidenista]

Mood somber at Edwards HQ as staff waits for campaign's end

By Mike Baker
Associated Press

At the front desk of John Edwards campaign headquarters, a pair of glum staffers were torn Wednesday about how best to answer the phone.

"John Edwards for president," they said, no longer seemed appropriate.

The former North Carolina senator, who filed for his first run for political office 10 years ago this week, planned to drop out of his second race for the White House later Wednesday. The news created a somber and disappointed mood at his office in Chapel Hill and among his supporters in the field.

"He just said it was time to get out," said Dave "Mudcat" Saunders, Edwards' rural affairs adviser. "I still don't like walking away, but it was John's decision."

Kate Michelman, an Edwards adviser and former president of the abortion rights group NARAL-Pro Choice America, said Edwards told her Wednesday morning "this was the moment to take this step, given the reality of this campaign."

Laurie Thorp, 56, of Chapel Hill, had signed up to volunteer for the campaign only last week. She and others at the campaign office mulled about while waiting for Edwards 1 p.m. EST speech in New Orleans.

"America has lost a great opportunity for an intelligent leader - one who will follow through on the promises he's made and the authentic needs of this country," Thorp said.

More: http://www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080130/APP/801300740&template=apart

[xchrom]

1. i can well imagine -- he's been

doing this for a long time -- and for those of us who liked him -- we were in his camp for a long time.