John Edwards is dropping out of the race today. He was a good candidate and my second choice behind Obama, but he hasn't come close to winning a primary yet. The real question is who will get his supporters? His campaign says he won't be endorsing anyone today, but I suspect that he will before February 5. There's a tight two-way race between Obama and Clinton, but Edwards has a substantial amount of support, including 26 delegates, which is more than half of what Clinton has. So, Edwards can play kingmaker. If he thought the race was going to stay close, he could go ahead with February 5th, pick up some more delegates, then hold out for a brokered convention and decide who to give his delegates to. That would be risky for him because someone may emerge next Tuesday with enough delegates to secure the nomination. Then Edwards would be a lot less relevant. But, if he drops out now and throws his support behind one of the candidates, then it's probably enough to tip the balance. Why wouldn't he do this? The only way he wouldn't is if he's totally uninterested in running for Vice President again and he really doesn't have a preference between the two candidates.

But who will he support? Early on in the debates he seemed to side with Obama more, but at the last debate he was piling on Obama along with Clinton. I hope that he only did this because he knew that South Carolina was his last best chance to win a primary and Obama was the favorite there. Obama and Edwards have been splitting the true progressive vote, while Clinton has been more of a centrist. Together, Obama and Edwards would be a serious force. Even if Edwards withholds an endorsement, I suspect that most of his supporters will go to Obama. Here's hoping.