Joe Trippi writes that he should have advised John Edwards to have remained in race. He writes, “He could have kept his agenda in the forefront by staying in the race and forcing Obama and Clinton to focus on those issues because he, John Edwards, would hold the key to the convention deadlock. And maybe, just maybe, a brokered convention would have stunned the political world and led to an Edwards nomination.”
It is doubtful that a brokered convention would have turned to a distant third place candidate, but its not impossible. Just as scary a thought is that Trippi might be right that having Edwards in the race could have affected the agenda. Its bad enough that we have a nanny-state loving big government junkie like Clinton as one of the remaining two candidates. The last thing the Democrats need (or depending on one’s perspective, the thing the Republicans could use to return to power) would be a Democratic battle based upon who could most appeal to the economic populist wing of the party.