Edwards

I know I'm getting a day behind on my soundbite analysis, but I wanted to give a nod to John Edwards, who left the race yesterday with a very graceful sendoff. I'm a little surprised he didn't stay in it until Feb. 5, but I guess at a certain point it stops being worth spending that much money to make the convention interesting.

Obviously, I'd have liked him to endorse Obama, but I thought it was classy of him let his supporters decide for themselves and to challenge both of the remaining candidates to deliver on the issue that kept him going this far. Poverty, at the end of the day, is the underlying injustice that neither grand words nor a great resume can remedy, and a challenge that the Democratic Party will have to rally around to make good on any presidential promises. I like Edwards. He's smart, he's got good ideas, and I wish he could have been president four years ago. And I think it's a bit too bad, and not a little ironic, that someone who would have made a good president had the bad luck to come up against, as he said it himself, the course of history.

Apparently in politics it never rains but it pours. And I'd rather have too many good choices than too many lousy ones, because in the long run, if we remember the ideals we all really share and the common problems we have to solve, many voices make us strong.