The Guardian Unlimited article on John leaving the race:
Edwards set to quit presidential race includes praise from Barak Obama:
"John Edwards has spent a lifetime fighting to give voice to the voiceless and hope to the struggling, even when it wasn't popular to do or covered in the news. "At a time when our politics is too focused on who's up and who's down, he made a nation focus again on who matters - the New Orleans child without a home, the West Virginia miner without a job, the families who live in that other America that is not seen or heard or talked about by our leaders in Washington.
"John and Elizabeth Edwards have always believed deeply that we can change this - that two Americas can become one, and that our country can rally around this common purpose. So while his campaign may end today, the cause of their lives endures for all of us who still believe that we can achieve that dream of one America," said Obama.
This has me wondering about what went on behind the scenes. After Ted Kennedy came out in support of Barak Obama, someone speculated that Sen Obama was moving to the left. I can see two possibilities:
1) John made a realistic assessment that Obama would take the progressive vote.
2) There were talks between Edwards and Obama where Obama agreed to move this positions closer to John's.
The most important issue in this, has John moved the whole debate leftward, and will his ideas be part of the Democratic platform.