John Edwards Endorsing Obama

After months of waiting, it is finally time. John Edwards is set to endorse Obama at 6:30 EDT tonight. This is the biggest endorsement in quite a while, but at this point it won't have much impact, aside from perhaps encourage the party to coalesce around Obama, which is always good. Unfortunately his endorsement comes too late in my mind, as the time for Edwards to prove his commitment to fighting for change passed long ago. If he was indeed serious about fighting the status quo he would have endorsed Obama soon after pulling out of the race, back when Obama's chances of winning were anything but certain. But he apparently didn't have the courage to stand up for his professed values, or stand up to the Clintons. Even Bill Richardson, Clinton friend and former appointee, endorsed Obama long before Edwards did, and he took a lot of heat for it too. But Edwards waited until Obama had all but secured the nomination before finally stepping up to the plate and standing up for what he spent his entire campaign saying he believed in. The New York Times seems to suggest that Edwards really did hold off an endorsement as part of a political calculation:

And he had another consideration: how to position himself for a job in the next president's administration. As Mr. Edwards saw it, aides said, Mrs. Clinton seemed to be more likely than Mr. Obama to win the nomination.

If that is true, that is pretty pathetic, and proves everything cynical I had ever thought of Edwards.

So, I'm disappointed that Edwards waited so long, but better late than never right? He proved he wasn't the principled "fighter" he pretended to be during his campaign, but he did eventually take the right side, which means maybe he did really mean everything he said about change, or maybe he is just a giant political opportunist...it is hard to say. I really want him to be genuine, but I just can't see how he could really be the person he made himself out to be when he failed to stand next to Obama while he got attacked by two sides in a divisive war of attrition.

Anyway, we'll see what Edwards says, maybe he can redeem himself a bit more.

We'll see if Edwards is going to actively campaign for Obama, it might take the edge off Kentucky. We'll also have to see if this means Obama gets Edwards' popular vote (about 400,000) and delegates (19--although I'm not sure if that is a current estimate, since Obama has already picked up some Edwards pledged delegates in Iowa [MSNBC is saying he has 18]). That would help to ensure the math is impossible for Hillary, not that he needed any more help.

Update: Edwards is speaking, he made a funny joke, he said that when the odds turned against Hillary she showed character, haha, well, I don't think he said "good" character, but she certainly did reveal something about her character.

Update #2: Edwards gave his usual "two Americas" speech, but didn't really focus on heaping praise on Obama, as he did with Hillary, but he did say that the people have decided and that it is essentially over.

Update #3: Pat Buchanan and the rest of the punditry are tripping over themselves to paint this in a negative light, by repeatedly emphasizing his nonexistent "white problem", by repeatedly suggesting that Obama was trying to make up for his "huge loss" in WV (as if that was unexpected or unexplained), and by trying to set up Kentucky as a must-win for Obama, even though everyone knows Kentucky is just like WV, and is an exception, not the rule. But yeah, they are just going crazy trying to paint Obama as having some electoral problem, despite no evidence of that. I don't know how people watch that stuff every day, I can feel my IQ dropping by the minute while those idiots are spewing their nonsense.