The Clinton camp tried to blunt that surge. A wave of automated phone calls yesterday reminded voters of Edwards's vote for permanent trade relations with China and accused him of making a fortune working for a Wall Street investment fund "that's been profiting on foreclosing on the homes of families."
Edwards campaign chairman David Bonior called the charges made in the calls "outrageous."
"We've been moving up, and they obviously don't want to place second," Bonior said of the Clinton campaign this afternoon.
Edwards's failure in South Carolina will almost certainly increase the pressure on him from Democratic Party officials to drop out and endorse either Obama or Clinton. The Clinton campaign also intends to ratchet up its efforts to knock Edwards out and lay claim to white, working-class Democrats.
"Both Obama and Clinton are now talking more and more about fighting special interests and championing the cause of the middle class. So, it's really decision making time," said Donna Brazile, who managed Al Gore's 2000 campaign. "My guess: When the money stops, he will call it quits."
Jennifer Palmieri, a longtime Edwards family confidante, said his third-place finish in South Carolina "isn't going to change anything." Edwards, who has raised $3 million over the Internet since Jan. 1, has enough money to stay in the race, perhaps all the way to the nominating convention in August, she said.
"Now the three of us move on to February 5th," Edwards told his supporters in Charleston, S.C., last night as he conceded defeat. "We will be there with you every step of the way."
Deputy campaign manager Jonathan Prince said Edwards will travel to Georgia today and to Tennessee tomorrow. "This race is just getting going, and we're going the distance," Prince said.
Bonior cited Texas as a state where he thinks Edwards will do well, noting that the former senator earned 20 percent of the vote in the Lone Star State's 2004 Democratic primary two weeks after he dropped out of that race.
In the worst-case scenario, one aide said, Edwards will keep running and collecting delegates, as Obama and Clinton run neck and neck. Then Edwards goes to the Democratic Party convention in Denver as a potential kingmaker.
"In the cold, somber gray of defeat, who knows? Anything can happen," the aide cautioned. "But that's not what the strategy is. It's hard to convince somebody running as long as he has that he should drop out with so long to go."
Washingtonpost.com staff writers Chris Cillizza in Washington and Ed O'Keefe in South Carolina contributed to this report. |
