Edwards plays kingmaker card

By Kevin Connolly BBC News, Washington

As a candidate John Edwards never really had much of a chance of winning the Democratic nomination, much less the American presidency.

He has the energy and the looks to run for the White House, but he was always going to seem less exciting to the party faithful than the prospect of choosing between the nation's first black president, or the first woman in the White House.

But curiously, from the moment he left the race at the end of January he has exercised more influence over the nominating process than he did while he was still a part of it.

Even before he chose to play his kingmaker card at Grand Rapids, Michigan, he mapped out the political territory on which much of the race between Mr Obama and Mrs Clinton was fought.

It was Edwards after all who made the "hurting classes" the key battleground for the Democratic Party. They are the blue-collar, unskilled folks who never went to college and who are fearful of recession and of rising food and fuel prices.

John Edwards made himself their champion � he talked endlessly on the campaign trail of cases where families had suffered because they could not afford proper medical insurance.

Wherever I saw him he was surrounded on stage by campaign volunteers from the Trades Union movement who backed him all the way.

Crucial battleground

It is no coincidence, surely, that the Obama camp has chosen to unveil his endorsement on the day after Hillary Clinton thrashed their candidate in West Virginia, one of the states which is dominated by the kind of voters that John Edwards was talking to and about.

History's verdict might be that Mr Edwards ended up largely writing the script which both his rivals have followed - but was somehow never quite the right messenger

Mr Obama did not just struggle with that demographic in West Virginia either � it was an important reason why he did not win those other crucial swing states of Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Getting Mr Edwards on board is a way of reaching out to that working class (and white) constituency which will be a crucial battleground in November.

There are other possible practical consequences too.

Mr Edwards himself only won a handful of delegates � and they do not have to obey his wishes about how they should vote at the summer nominating conference anyway.

But this long-delayed endorsement might just lead other super-delegates to start declaring for Mr Obama too.

If there is a trickle that leads to an avalanche, even the redoubtable Hillary Clinton might be forced to admit it is over.

Unfortunate headlines

So what of Mr Edwards himself? Well � history's verdict might be that he ended up largely writing the script which both his rivals have followed - but was somehow never quite the right messenger.

He had the energy alright � in Iowa he did 36-hour bus tour of the state punctuated by through-the-night speaking engagements, but it is just possible that his message about poverty, inequality and inadequate health-care lacked the spark of optimism that Americans look for in their leaders.

And there was a flair for slightly unfortunate headlines � he was the champion of the poor famous for a $400 haircut and a 29,000 square foot house.

But he has passion, and he has the ear of part of the Democratic Party electorate... we will soon find out how influential he remains if he agrees to do some of Mr Obama's heavy lifting in the steel-towns and coal-fields of America come October.

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