Former Senator John Edwards has signaled a change of mind: after initially throwing cold water on the idea, he now says he wouldn’t rule out saying yes to an offer of the Veepship on Democratic presumptive Presidential nominee Barack Obama’s ticket, if it were offered to him:
Former Democratic vice-presidential nominee John Edwards said on Sunday he would have to “seriously” consider another shot at the job if asked by White House hopeful Barack Obama.
But the former senator, who unsuccessfully ran for the party’s presidential nomination this year, reaffirmed that he was not actively seeking to be Obama’s running mate.
….”I’d take anything he asks me to think about seriously, but obviously this is something that I’ve done and it’s not a job I’m seeking,” Edwards told ABC News.
Edwards, who was Democrat John Kerry’s running mate in the 2004 election won by George W Bush, told Spanish newspaper Vanguardia earlier this month that “the vice-presidency is not a position that I desire”.
His comments to ABC appeared to leave open some wiggle room as Obama steps up his vetting of potential VP nominees.
Edwards has previously said he wasn’t only not interested in the Vice Presidential slot and that he wasn’t thinking about serving as Attorney General under Obama.
This seeming shift is likely due to two factors. For one thing, most Democrats (except for some former supporters of Hillary Clinton’s who are actively working to elect Republican John McCain as President) feel this is indeed a Democratic year and want to ensure the ticket wins — up and down the line. And, secondly, Edwards’ comment suggests he has concluded that Obama will indeed win.
Would Edwards help if he was invited on the ticket?
Edwards came out of his campaign this year respected for his campaign style and energy and his role as an advocate. On the other hand, he disappointed some in 2004 when he didn’t seem to live up to his advance hype as a campaigner. Even if he’s not on the ticket, his public revision of his I’m-not-interested stance reflects perceptions that the Obama ticket will come out of the convention enjoying a large degree of party unity (minus the group of Clinton supporters who want to defeat Obama who seem motivated more by anger than political policies) at a time when the Democrats could well win the White House.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.