NYT: After His Loss in Nevada, Edwards Keeps Marching
By JULIE BOSMAN
Published: January 21, 2008
....(E)ven with Nevada behind him, Mr. Edwards, a former senator from North Carolina, is facing the South Carolina primary on Saturday, where he is trailing far behind in the polls. Even his closest advisers are acknowledging that he no longer expects to come in higher than third place, in the state where he was born and where his campaign had anticipated a strong showing. And one thing was obvious from Mr. Edwards’s performance in Nevada: the already-murky rationale for continuing his campaign had suddenly become much less clear.
Even as the Democratic race has narrowed to a virtual two-way match between Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, Mr. Edwards has continued campaigning relentlessly for the nomination, most recently on a three-day airplane tour through four key states that will hold primaries on Feb. 5. On the stump and in interviews, he is still recalling his “son of a mill worker” background, still vowing to take on powerful corporate interests and still insisting that he is very much in the Democratic race. Friends, aides and Mr. Edwards himself say that the campaign has become his life’s cause and that his focus remains on breaking through, as long as the money holds out and there are delegates to be gained. Matthew T. Richardson, a friend since Mr. Edwards’s Senate days, said that despite the Nevada loss, Mr. Edwards is determined to resist mounting pressure to get out of the race....
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But his aides have said privately that they do not expect Mr. Edwards to win a single primary state. And the results of the Nevada caucuses threw the campaign’s top advisers into hours of strategy meetings Saturday night, debating how the shellshocked campaign could feasibly continue. John C. Moylan, a longtime friend and adviser in South Carolina who ran the Edwards campaign there in 2004, said Mr. Edwards could still win 15 percent of the vote in South Carolina and come away with delegates to add to those he collected in Iowa and New Hampshire. For now, campaign donations are still trickling in. The campaign, which is accepting federal financing, has gotten used to running on a lean budget. On Friday alone, it also raised roughly $300,000 online, said Mark Kornblau, a spokesman. And on Monday night in Myrtle Beach, Mr. Edwards will participate in a Democratic debate — a forum where he typically performs well.
Tad Devine, a Democratic consultant who was a senior adviser to the Democratic presidential candidates in 2000 and 2004, said that even without taking first place in primary states, Mr. Edwards has reason to stay in and possibly influence the result at the nominating convention. “Even though he doesn’t expect to win, he expects to do well enough to win delegates,” Mr. Devine said. “Anybody who can command 15 percent of the vote and get on the ballot can wind up with literally hundreds of delegates at the convention, and that’s a pretty strong position to be in.” But some political strategists say Mr. Edwards also has another compelling reason to stay in, at least in South Carolina. He could end up sharing the white vote with Mrs. Clinton, thus helping Mr. Obama, whom Mr. Edwards has signaled he favors....
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/21/us/politics/21edwards.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=all&adxnnlx=1200938512-6Z14mktfFrfYTHvJwJ+KOQ
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