The media has ignored John Edwards from the stat while it continues to give Obama and Clinton free exposure in every market.  Edwards finished second in Iowa and one news commentator in our market actually described him as "desperately hanging on".  It is a shame that the media has to attempt to influence the election with polls that are misleading and lead the majority to think their vote doesn't count.  One reporter, after the South Carolina Debate, stated that audience members indicated they thought Edwards won the debate and was the best candidate, but wouldn't vote for him because they wanted their votes to count.  So we have a system where elections are being influenced by the media.  It is very sad.   I think it is too bad he ran as the Vice Presidential candidate with John Kerry who was so incredibly arrogant and out of touch with the common man.    I for one have given and will continue to give to the Edwards campaign.  I think he is the best candidate and deserves the job.  On February 2nd I'll be caucusing for Edwards in Minnesota and I'm hopeful that the American Public will wake up and vote for the best candidate - not the candidate the press and the Republicans are baiting us to vote for -  Obama or Clinton - both of whom will give the press lots of drama to cover (rather than the issues) and both of whom will be easily defeated by McCain.

I think it's sad, when the MSM can decide who's going to be heard and who isn't, and Democrats actually buy into it the hype. So instead of paying attention to the issues and backing progressive candidates, or, God forbid, who's polling best against Republicans, we pay attention to the money and the b.s.

John Edwards has been right on damn near everything but he's wrong on this - it is an auction. I'm in Nevada and I saw first hand what money can do, when ethical considerations are thrown out the window by candidates and the Party.

Frankly, I hope we Democrats get what so many of us apparently want so badly - another 8 years of Republican administration. It serves us right for letting corporate MSM pick our nominee.

John Edwards is the best person for president. I have supported him for the last four years and will keep on. The other two candidates get most of their policy ideas from him. Sen Kennedy said Obama didn t support iraq, stood up to say it, so why didnt he go to the senate to vote on the Iran proposal. The man isnt ready for the presidency. I dont care what any one says. Put him into office and we'll have another George Bush, what do I do now? Any ideas, someone call Mr Edwards. Besides I live in Illinois, I haven't seen Mr Obama help my county at all. Dick Gephardt has. Obama gets way too much credit.

"fundraising came from long-time online supporters who made first-time contributions".

I sense "winds of change are coming"

Hang in there John!

I support JRE  and the finances seem strange different numbers coming at us all the time. I think to some Obama gets the crowd moving and does great constiuent services as far as getting back to people except his Rezko friend's building when the heat went out. JRE's campaign tries to spin the numbers and fails unfortunately in realizing that certain things in my opponion needed to be retooled. Best candiate wrong handlers. All-in-All still JRE all the way.

Edwards should drop out; he will clearly not win the nomination.  His desire to stay in and try to act as a player is driven by ego, not the desire to do what is best for the country and the party. (Hint: that would be to drop out and endorse Obama.)

Since you are all curious...

$4 million in January... and January is not over yet
match it and... do the math if you can... or just vote for the professor or the machine - the media has told you that is your choice

I've been making calls in Minnesota---- and I've found a surprising number of Edwards supporters.  

The 4 mill.  was just in January.  Alot of us haven't had a chance to vote yet. I am voting for who I want and not for who I am told to.  I am voting for Edwards February 5th!

this is the kind of president we need. someone who will fight for us and not for the people that hold all the money..I am so tired of hearing about the race card and the sex card.. what happened to voting for who is best for our country and that is John Edwards....

Edwards is the only democrat with a solid chance to beat McCain, Romney or Hockabee in general elections. John Feeherty, a REPUBLICAN strategist said this on MSNBC last December:

“I think we would be delighted with either Hillary or Obama. EDWARDS is the one who scares me the most because he’s a Southern democrat. Southern democrats are the ones that usually win!”

Check it out at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir5Ee2CE-8Q

Yet another stupid thing the Democrats do is award delegates based on percentage of votes in each state. So now Edwards, who has totally flipped on every major vote he every made in the Senate, will more then likely be the king/queen maker at the Democratic convention. Watch Hillary and Barack try to get real cozy with breck-girl next Wednesday.

It's difficult to match the funding of candidates who are owned by corporations. Go John!

The Edwards campaign raised $3 million in the first 25 days of this year.  Out of money?  I think not.  He may not have the $100 million that the two glitz stars have, but he did raise $40 million.  He also has matching funds going for him.  Edwards spent over $2 million in ads in South Carolina and he did in fact outspend Obama and Clinton combined.  But he is not out of money.  And, for those of you who are only hearing about the Obama and Clinton campaigns, thanks in large part to the mainstream media's shaping this into a "two-person race, don't think that just because you don't hear Edwards' name that he is out of the race.  He is not.  Far from it.

Those percentages DO put edwards into contention - to reach 15% and win delegates, which at these point is all he is really after. His goal is for a nomination that goes all the way to the convention with no winner, so that even though he is not in the lead, he ends up with a lot of power - maybe even a shot at winning it.

The Edwards campaign received more contributions in the first 25 days of the year month than in the entire 4th quarter of last year. And I know for a FACT they have more coming since then :)

Some folks would do themselves a good turn by understanding some of us will support him, period. You just have to love democracy in action.

A friend asked me to explain the New York Times endorsement of Hillary Clinton.  I explained New York needs Hillary Clinton.  The country needs John Edwards.  The world needs Barack Obama.

For us, it is about the country: the working guy driving a pick up or someone going off to work everyday who is seeing gasoline go up and up.  The dollar going down and down.  Millions have inadequate health care.  Thousands are losing family wage level jobs - being exported overseas to locations where equivalent high labor standards and environmental protections to the U. S. are not in place.  On January 20, 2008 Martin Luther King III told John Edwards that he "almost singlehandedly" has raised the issue of poverty in the 2008 campaign.  A poor America or an America underpinned by poverty, insufficient health care, and a widening out-sourced economic base will not stand long in a broader world. One is only as strong as your weakest underpinning. Martin Luther King III encouraged John Edwards to move forward and so do we.

John Edwards and Elizabeth should be our choice in these soon to be hard times.  

I hope John Edwards gets his message out to everyone.  Unfortunately,  he hasn't had the media attention that Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama have had.  I went to see both John Edwards and Hillary Clinton when they were in St. Louis.  Also, want to mention, I was a previous Obama supporter, but I wanted to hear all the candidates speak before I made my final decision.  My final decision was based on getting rid of the Bush/Clinton/Bush dynasty.  I want change and I feel Hillary Clinton can be bought - next best thing to a Republican President.  Then there's Obama, very articulate, actually like his speeches, but he hasn't done well in debates.  With Obama, I also hear alot about Hopes, Dreams, Change, but he doesn't really say more than that.  At least John Edwards and Hillary Clinton are a bit more detailed on the policies than Obama is.  Then with the jabs that were going on between Clinton and Obama during the last debate - big turn off.  The one person who has done consistently well in the debates is John Edwards.  If people would take the time to listen to him and not be steered by media, they would see that John Edwards is the true candidate of change.  After meeting him at the rally in St. Louis my vote is going to John Edwards.

As one of those Edwards' contributors ($250 thus far), I remain hopeful although realistic.  My biggest dream, frankly, is for John to agree to throw his support to Obama, so long as Obama names at least four people he would include in his cabinet.  Obama could defuse the "lack of experience" chimera by getting commitments from experienced Democrats committed to real change -- instead of the "same old same old."  The Kennedy endorsement was (hopefully) a sign that the party can come together in the name of change.

The media definitely needs to pay more attention to John Edwards.  This obsessive focus on Clinton/Obama is sickening, when there are clearly 3 candidates vying for the Democratic nomination.  Give the American people the facts and highlight that there are other choices, before you turn off a lot of us from voting altogether.

Edwards has my vote, even if I have to write him in.
He is our only true hope.

I think that the media should quit being the agents of the Clinton /Obama camps and give John Edwards his fair share of coverage. I would like to be able to hear more of his meassage instead of how the old guard is manipulating this race. How much "change" will Obama make when he is beholdin' to the Kennedys?
All John Q Public is hearing is the Obama/Kennedy
interplay. Give John his fair share and allow it to really be a three way race.

The Democrats have a chance of winning the 2008 Presidential election.
Edwards has the best chance. The DLC will choose to loose with Clinton or Obama rather than win with Edwards. Since the DLC Democrats have contempt for rank and file Democrats, the rank and file Democrats ought to stay home this November if the DLC candidate gets the nomination. It's about time to throw out the DLC with the Republicans as there is no difference between them.

Thank goodness John Edwards is still in this race.
I have already mailed in my ballot here in California.
Not only is it far from over --- we still have months of 'spinning' to go.  Wouldn't it be nice if the C-Span model were applied to the corporate MSM? ---(no
talking heads)   Then we might really hear what e candidates say and we may find out which of them we want speaking for us, the people, this democracy.

I have become alarmed by the apparent fact that the mainstream media are able to write the narrative for the presidential contest at will, so that virtually ignoring Senator Edwards and reporting it as a 2-candidate race can largely make it so. Reportage far less than commensurate with the interest a campaign generates among voters on the ground and the quality of the candidate's contribution to the content of the campaign apparently greatly lessens this candidate's resulting share of the vote, and makes the MEDIA the decider in the contest. Just what kind of democracy is THAT? A solution to the media clout problem must be found! In the meantime, public, VOTE FOR JOHN!!

Congratulations on your promotion to kingmaker. But since there is no official office for such person, I'd rather see you stick to the trail you've been doggedly following -- a run for president.  There, instead of producing kings, you can use your talent to re-establish a great middle class and thus restore us to a 100 percent democratic nation. Now, if we could only get the mass media to think about that.....

Who Profits from the war in Iraq? Hallibuton, Blackwater, and other CORPORATIONS in the military industrial comples.
Who profits from our Lame Health Care System? Pfizer, Ely Lily, pharmaceuticals and Insurance Companies.
Who Profits from ignoring GLobal Warming? Shell, BP, Exxon-Mobil, and the Auto manufacturers.
Who profits from ignoring immigration? Hotels, Motels, Carghill, ADM, etc.
Corporations OWN our government and they don't want it to 'CHANGE'. Despite Obama's calls for Change he just wants us to sit at the table with their lawyers.
John Edwards has identified the problem. He knows the enemy and he has a demonstrated record of beating the enemy in court. Pick someone who knows where to tilt the sword. It may be a windmill but its the right windmill. John Edwards is still my candidate.

CA-11%    
Ga-13%
ID-15%
MN-16%
MO-18%
NM-18%
ND-????
OK-25%
TN-16%

I'll tell you what he's not smoking and its those  poll numbers which are obviously skewed. I just read on line, a local news source poll in chattanooga TN. Edwards was leading by nearly 50%. Do you really believe that even the democrats in those ultra  conservative southern states are going for Barack or  Hillary? Please.
We ain't in South Carolina any more!

I agree that Edwards has definetly been overlooked by the media.  The media is too concerned about ratings which involve the constant Hillary-Obama bickering.  If you are tired of it like I am, and probably most of the country is, vote for Edwards.  He is articulate and sincere.  I believe that he holds the middle and lower class interests at heart more than Hillary or Obama do.  If you're tired of all the bickering and feuding between Hillary and Obama and actually want something done in the White House, then vote for Edwards.  If you want the same old talk with lots of skeletons in the closet, then vote for Hillary or Obama.

@Paul Miller:  Why would he be out of fundraising contention?  He's qualified for matching funds long ago, and it's not like they take that away just because the media says "oh, he's done!"  If you're suggesting that people would no longer be donating to his campaign, the opposite is actually true.

The (nearly) $4 million figure quoted is the amount that the Edwards campaign has received in *online donations* in JANUARY ~ a new campaign record for him.  I'm guessing that paragraph is a gloss from <a href="http://www.johnedwards.com/news/headlines/20080125-record-breaking/">this</a>.  Most of those are in small increments (under $100), and over half came from new donors.   This has all come about as the result of grassroots/netroots organizing by Edwards supporters, and as a result of JRE's strong showings in the past few debates.  I know that I've contributed to his campaign twice this month (once before NV, once before SC)  - my first contributions to a primary race, ever.  (I'm a grad student, so it's not just lying around, if you know what I mean)

I'm sure a lot of people think Edwards (and his supporters) must be nuts to keep going at this point - after all, the Democratic primaries are supposed to be a mere formality after the first few.  But a lot of us still believe that our votes and our voices should count, and we want John in the race.  There are many reasons I've heard for supporting him, all valid:  

1) regardless of the eventual nominee, Senator Edwards's progressive policies keep the Dems from sliding "center" (i.e., right) in hopes of gaining votes that they won't really gain by alienating their base

2) regardless of the eventual nominee, Senator Edwards's progressive policies are shaping the agenda that most Americans really want to see in the White House come next January

3) Senator Edwards represents the best chance the Democrats have for winning the White House - he's not just a "primary" winner, but the best candidate for America, because he can appeal to voters across a broad political spectrum.

4) Senator Edwards sincerely cares about the issues and values that American voters care about most - jobs, the economy, health care, ending the war in Iraq, quality education for our kids, restoring a tone of civility and neighborliness to political discourse in both national and international politics, and helping our country heal the deep divides that the last eight years have created.

I'm with John to the end, for all of those reasons, but mostly because I believe he really is the best choice for President of all the candidates in this year's primary pool.  I think he will make an excellent President.

The net roots are banding together and managing to keep Edwards and his message alive with coordinated online fund raising efforts.

Raising that much money in the last 30 days is a clear sign that he has support that is likely easy to build upon seeing as the main stream media does not cover him so that his free media exposure is almost nil.

I am a progressive and I am not on the Clinton or Obama bandwagons.  I not only hope that he stays in the race but actually starts to pick up support as I see him as the best choice of options currently presented.

Money talks and he's starting to bring enough in to make a difference.  Good for him.  He's the one conservatives truly fear running against and its about time people start paying attention!

Edwards gets my money and my vote. I am sick that he doesn't get the media attention that the other 2 pet candidates get.

John Edwards in 08!!

Why no new comments accepted here since the first half-hour this was posted? Why SO controlling? Just like the DICTATORAL mainstream media in this contest -- which is SUPPOSED to belong to the PEOPLE, not the corporate media!!

If the media won't advertise Edwards then "we the people will". The outpouring of these dollars is indicative of this. If he is willing to fight for us then we will fight for him. He came up with the ideas first and is not getting credit for them and we want our voices heard.

this is really good news for the only real democrat that is not affraid of talking about the real issues that affect people today....go edwards!!

John would be a better president than Billary.

The Democrats have a chance of winning the 2008 Presidential election.
Edwards has the best chance. The DLC will choose to loose with Clinton or Obama rather than win with Edwards. Since the DLC Democrats have contempt for rank and file Democrats, the rank and file Democrats ought to stay home this November if the DLC candidate gets the nomination. It's about time to throw out the DLC with the Republicans as there is no difference between them.

I'm THRILLED about the ads...the other 2 Dems get plenty of media coverage.  Even after the unexpected results of Iowa and New Hampshire when the media was
momentarily humbled and apologetic, they continue to dismiss Edwards while on the Republican side even Thompson still gets some discussion.  What gives?  Why
is Edwards a spoiler or an afterthought?  Many believe
him to be the best candidate and the one who can win in November. Why won't the media take heed.  They were
wrong about McCain too.

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