Reply #106: He COULD have won

[fujiyama]

Assuming a fair election (and that's a big assumption in itself) any of the candidates, with the exception of the three "fringe" candidates, could have won had they run the right campaign.

Edwards might have appealed more to some in OH and IA. It's hard to say. In IA you're talking about 10,000 votes and in OH, some 140,000 votes...so anything could have happened.

He wouldn't have won NC though, and that's really not so much his fault as the fact that NC is still a conservative state. We didn't win the senate seat there either. We may not have lost it by as much though, but it's unlikely we would have won it.

But then again, had Edwards been the nominee he may have tried harder in various southern states, though ultimately it would have been extremely tough to fight the "inexperienced" tag. Edwards is a great campaigner but I think he would have a very tough time getting elected in a post 9/11 environment.