 After a decisive loss in Nevada on Saturday, John Edwards said he hopes the old saying, “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas,” proves to be true. Edwards placed a distant third in the Nevada caucuses—earning only 4 percent of the vote and acquiring zero delegates. Clinton won 51 percent of the electorate, while Obama received 45 percent.
| I'd call that a fairly good indication that neither of the Two Americas™ wants a pretty boy for president. |
Addressing reporters outside a diner in Winnsboro, South Carolina, on Sunday, Edwards said, “I got my butt kicked,” and attributed his loss to the millions of dollars spent by his rivals in the state. “I think the other candidates spent enormous amounts of money and we didn’t,” he said. “It was a caucus process. They were there for a long time organizing.”
| "It couldn't possibly have been that nobody liked me! With hair like this? No way!" |
But Edwards spent more days in Nevada than his Democratic rivals—he visited the state 17 times. Obama came 12 times and Clinton 8 times. Though the Edwards campaign never predicted he would win the state, his advisers remained optimistic that he would finish competitively. Edwards also criticized the national media for representing the Democratic presidential campaign as a two-person race—focusing most of their attention on the “two celebrity candidates,” senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Despite his loss, he assured voters that he was in the race “for the long haul” and that 47 states have yet to be heard from. |