Third place

I have been meaning to address the topic of Edwards getting out of the race, but Josh Marshall has beat me to it. I agree with him on this issue, so I'll let him say it:

And in the case of Edwards specifically, I would say two things. First, as others have noted, his campaign has had an effect on this race out of proportion to his poll support in as much as he's forced the two other leading candidates to grapple with issues they would not have otherwise. And in this race specifically, there is at least a chance we could come into the convention with neither candidate having a majority of the delegates, in which case he might play the kingmaker. Not likely, but not impossible.

Just to be clear, I don't have any brief for Edwards campaign. I think it's clear his support is falling off now as the race becomes more and more a Clinton/Obama race. The result in Nevada must have been a sobering wake-up call. But I don't see where insider know-it-alls get off saying he's under some sort of obligation to 'do the right thing' and pack it in.

I couldn't have said it better. As far as I can tell, the people who want Edwards to drop out are hard-core Clinton or Obama fans, or pundits who want a two-person horse race. And to encourage him to drop out does a tremendous disservice to the democratic process.

Edwards has contributed an enormous amount to this election. (He may have even laid the groundwork for Obama's entire campaign with his whole two Americas speech from 2004.) People look at Edwards and either see a phony or a truth teller, a rich guy or the first in his family to go to college, an opportunist or one who speaks for the ordinary American. But wherever you come down on Edwards as a person, you have to acknowledge the impact he has had on the election (in my opinion, it's been an extremely positive one). So why should he not finish what he started?