What if it's a two-man Democratic race?

Tom Curry National affairs writer • Profile • E-mail

HAMPTON, N.H. - Imagine a whole new race for the Democratic presidential nomination: a two-man contest between the 2004 vice presidential nominee, John Edwards, and the rookie phenomenon of 2008, Sen. Barack Obama.

If Hillary Clinton were to suffer a defeat of large proportions on Tuesday night in the New Hampshire primary, and if her star were to fade in the succeeding contests in Nevada and South Carolina, she might either quit the race or cease to be a dominant factor.

Edwards would remain as the only person standing between Obama and the Democratic presidential nomination.

Edwards and his strategists are already planning for a two-man contest.

Elizabeth Edwards, the candidate’s wife and most outspoken campaign advocate, pressed the critique of Obama on Monday at a stop in Bedford, N.H.

“Sen. Obama, when he was in the state Senate in Illinois, took money from the health insurance industry at the same time that he was suggesting an amendment that was favorable to the health insurance industry and was unfavorable to the people of the Illinois,” she told a small crowd.

She also slammed Obama for having a lobbyist as co-chairman of his New Hampshire campaign.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton said in response to Edwards that Obama "has done more than any candidate in this race to curb the influence of money and lobbyists in the political process and, as president, he will institute some of the most sweeping ethics reforms the executive branch has ever seen." 

'A superhuman rocket ship'?
Joe Trippi, who piloted Howard Dean’s candidacy four years ago and now serves as a strategist for Edwards, has the experience of seeing one candidate, Dean, implode.

Some in the Clinton camp think sooner or later Obama, too, will implode.

If so, Edwards would be there to benefit.

“I grant you, one scenario is that this guy (Obama) is a superhuman rocket ship that is never going to come down,” Trippi said as Edwards spoke to a rally in Hampton on Monday night. “The other scenario is that every time you have had one of these rockets go off, every time it becomes clear this guy is about to be the nominee, everybody steps back and reassesses it.”

Slide show   New Hampshire votes The presidential hopefuls converge on the Granite State, which holds its primary on Tuesday. Click to see campaign images. more photos

“On Wednesday morning, people will wake up and say, ‘Jeez, this guy (Obama) is going to be our nominee,’” Trippi said. At that point, Trippi said, a closer examination will occur: “The world is going to say, who the hell is this guy?”

He acknowledges that Obama would start on Wednesday morning with a substantial advantage, having won Iowa and New Hampshire.

“For a year everybody was told this contest is between him (Obama) and her (Clinton),” Trippi argued. “And during that year, the national audience has learned quite a bit about him, most of it amazingly good: amazing speaker, incredibly inspirational — and yet where is he nationally? He’s at 25 percent. The Rasmussen Poll, which is the only national one I’ve seen since Iowa, has him at 25. I’ll tell you why: They have massive doubts about this guy — on their own.”

In other words, even without advertising from Edwards pointing out flaws in the Obama image or record, many Democratic voters have doubts about Obama.

“If you were going to fall under his spell, wouldn’t you have done it by now?” asked Trippi.

Seventy percent of the Iowa Democratic vote went against Clinton last week, but another way of reading the same data is that 62 percent voted against Obama and 70 percent voted against Edwards.

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