So Edwards isn’t ruling out endorsing anybody. But that statement from the campaign can be translated into: Edwards isn’t ruling out endorsing Hillary and the Inside the Beltway rumor mill abounds with speculation. It is a prospect that I find incredibly surprising, though, since he’s spent the last several months talking about how he and Obama are the candidates for change and Hillary represents the status quo not to mention all of his criticism of her acceptance of lobbyist money and her positions on Iraq and Iran.
Sources tell me an endorsement won’t likely come before Super Tuesday and wouldn’t be about him or ego or anything but getting the most bang for his buck endorsement on his issues of poverty and corruption. Edwards told CNN after his NOLA speech:
“I told both Senator Obama and Senator Clinton that I’d be happy to spend time with them… I want to have a very serious, very substantive conversation with both of them… I know them both, I’ve run against them both this past year but this is a different kind of conversation… (Poverty) is the cause of my life and I need to be satisfied that if I’m going to endorse that they are committed to it.”
At the same time, one day of neutrality doesn’t make up for all the Obama-lovin’ Edwards has spouted in the last few months. But it’s a question worth pondering: could Edwards credibly endorse Hillary given how critical he has been of her?