Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Caucus Eve

Right now in Iowa, John Edwards is in the 23rd hour or so of his 36-hour rush toward the finish line. Caucus night is roughly 33 hours away. There’s no clear agreement among the recent Iowa polls, except for one thing: This race is tiiiiight.

Yesterday brought two interesting caucus-related developments from the left side of the Democratic Party. Dennis Kucinich, widely seen as the most liberal of the Democratic candidates running for president, urged his supporters to caucus for Barack Obama if Kucinich is not viable (ie, if he does not receive 15 percent support in a given precinct) tomorrow night. Four years ago, Kucinich did the same thing for Edwards, helping to propel him to a surprise second-place finish. Edwards is apparently less palatable to Kucinich this time around, but Edwards did get the endorsement of a different lefty, Ralph Nader. Nader, the infamous Green Party candidate whom many Democrats blame for spoiling Al Gore’s presidential chances in 2000, endorsed Edwards, using the same anti-corporate language that Edwards uses on the stump.