Edwards Goes to Plan B: The Marathon

A short, but interesting article by Rob Christensen at McClatchy that let's us know the state of the campaign as we move toward Super Duper Tuesday.

Essentially the strategy is like the NCAA basketball tournament: Survive and Advance (and continue to raise enough money to compete).

Edwards' four-state strategy to propel his presidential bid has not worked out (in many ways, the strategy was correct, but Obama eked out the win in Iowa thanks to the Chicago Machine and then he got even more media and more momentum while John has been under a media brownout).

So, on to Plan B:

A marathon run in which they plan to stay in the race with the hope that one or more of the two front-runners, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, will implode.

"We believe it will go to the convention," said Joe Trippi, Edwards' chief strategist. In the worst case scenario, they say, Edwards will enter the Democratic national convention in Denver in August as a power broker, helping drive the agenda on issues that he has championed such as health care, poverty, and the inequities of bad trade deals.

But, in the Miracle Plan, Edwards survives Super Duper Tuesday -- on the power of strong showings in Georgia, Oklahoma, Missouri and Tennessee and delegate wins in California, Minnesota and Alabama -- as a viable alternative to Clinton and Obama and begins to catch fire as we enter into the part of the race with more Southern and industrial Midwestern states. Near the end one of the two celebrity candidates collapses -- last week this looked to be Obama, this week it could be Hillary. In this longshot, but possible, scenario Edwards ends up with a plurality of delegates in Denver. A contested convention ends with an Edwards nomination and the second place finisher being offered and accepting the Vice Presidential nod.

And they say that anything can happen in this topsy-turvy political year. As proof, they point to Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who has moved from front-runner, to politically dead, only to become a front-runner again.

Adding to the volatility is the increasingly negative and polarizing tone of the campaign, with Clinton and Obama making personal attacks against one another. Trippi pointed to the acrimonious debate held in Myrtle Beach last week, where the two front-runners clashed while Edwards scored points by staying above the fray."If you want to know why we're still in it, go look at the debate," Trippi said. "There are two people trying to tear each other down. We can win this thing. People will get sick of that real fast."