Edwards fights on
Posted: Saturday, January 26, 2008 9:36 PM by Mark Murray
From NBC/NJ’s Tricia Miller
COLUMBIA, SC -- For those who haven’t heard: John Edwards is not dropping out tonight.
Following a litany of people whose voices he said would be heard in his campaign, the South Carolina native said, "Finally, if you’re one of the millions of Americans who have yet to cast your vote in this democratic process, beginning on Feb. 5 and moving beyond, your voice will be heard and we will be there with you every single step of the way."
Despite a third-place finish in his home state, Edwards will turn his attention to Feb. 5 states, appearing first tomorrow in Dublin, Ga. and continuing on to Tennessee, Missouri, Oklahoma, Minnesota and North Dakota by mid-week. Senior adviser Joe Trippi maintained that the former North Carolina senator will be competitive on Super Tuesday -- doing better in some states than he did today in South Carolina.
“We’re already ahead of this in a lot of states,” he said. “Go look at every poll out there. Oklahoma we’re doing much better than we are -- than we did here. Obama’s not doing well in Oklahoma at all. Missouri we were in the 20s.”
Trippi said that the campaign expects this to be a race for delegates that could be decided at the Democratic National Convention in Denver seven months from now. Asked again whether Edwards would stay in, Trippi was adamant.
“It’s fairly simple,” he said. “We get to continue running for president until we decide we’re not running for president. And we have the money to go on and we have the support. You know, we’ve raised more money in the last 23 days on the Internet than we raised all of the fourth quarter, so there’s a lot of energy out there. There are a lot of people who we are the voice for right now. We’re not trying to tear anybody down.”
Edwards’ campaign focused on the first four primary states in 2007 and ultimately finished second in Iowa and third in New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. Now they’re moving staff from those states to Feb. 5 states and relying on local endorsers and unions to turn out the vote.
