Posted by Jed Lewison on Wed May 14, 2008 at 2:13 PM Pacific

It's happening: Edwards for Obama

ABC News | WSJ | AP
Interesting note: MSNBC just noted that yesterday, Edwards won 7% of the vote in West Virginia. There's still a lot of people out there who really like John Edwards (including me).
Last Friday, Poblano (aka Nostradamus) predicted the Edwards endorsement would happen this week
John Edwards is not a superdelegate, but he does have 19 pledged delegates.

2:40PM: As we wait for the actual event, two more superdelegates for Obama have rolled in, Wisconsin State Sen. Lena Taylor and Oklahoma Senate President Pro Tempore Mike Morgan. On the day (if I'm counting right) Obama has added 4.5 supers.
3:03PM: Rachel Maddow says combined with the NARAL endorsement, the Edwards endorsement is "a stinging double-whammy" for Clinton.
3:04PM: Eugene Robinson calls it "the sound of a door closing" on the Clinton candidacy.
3:05PM: Ed Schultz says it sends a message to undeclared superdelegates that the time to endorse is now.
3:14PM: Rachel suggests Obama and Edwards may have kept the endorsement under wraps until today to blunt any media momentum for Clinton after WV, and calls it a brilliant move. Ed Schultz agrees.
3:24PM: Rachel Maddow notes that both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama trail John McCain by exactly the same margin among blue-collar whites.
3:38PM: I love the fact that they are doing this endorsement in Michigan. It's not just that Michigan is an incredibly important state for the fall, it's also a subtle symbolic reminder that (a) not all blue-collar whites live in Ohio or West Virginia and (b) not all blue-collar workers are white.
3:42PM: Barack just introduced John. It feels like a convention almost. So exciting!
3:45PM: It occurs to me that John Edwards' speech is really to Hillary Clinton's supporters. His praise for Clinton might have seemed false to you and me, but think about from the perspective of her supporters. Edwards is enabling the pivot to Obama.
3:50PM: A trite comment -- remember the Richardson endorsement speech? It felt a bit awkward having Barack standing next to Richardson. This time the advance team found a tall chair for him to sit in -- looks far more natural.
3:59PM: MSNBC is yapping over Barack's speech -- I switched to CNN which has it unencumbered. Update: nope, CNN doesn't have it unencumbered. Lou Dobbs just started talking over it. I switched back to MSNBC...and Pat Buchanan. Great. Two enormous racists, Dobbs and Buchanan. Perfect symbolism.
4:10PM: Last comment...I get the feeling that Edwards isn't used to having such a huge audience -- on a number of occasions, he talked over the crowd, almost plowing through the speech. I think it started out pretty rocky. Initially, the crowd wasn't in the mood to hear the praise for Hillary Clinton, and I think it took a while for Edwards and the crowd to get in sync. Eventually, I think they got there, but it was interesting thing to see evolve.