Barack Obama's presidential campaign has announced that former White House hopeful John Edwards will endorse the Illinois Senator at a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan this evening. Both Obama and Hillary Clinton had long sought the endorsement of Edwards whose campaign, while unsuccessful, attracted substantial popular support. The New York Times reports that the endorsement may come with some expectations on the part of former North Carolina Senator:
Privately, [Edwards] told aides that he would consider the role of vice president, and favored the position of attorney general, which would appeal to his experience of decades spent in courtrooms as a trial lawyer in North Carolina; and his desire to follow in the footsteps of Robert F. Kennedy, one of his heroes.
The fact that the announcement is being made in Michigan is also significant, as the state was stripped of its delegates by the DNC, and its status in the nomination process has been a major point of contention between Obama and Clinton.
Moreover, the timing of the announcement will bump Clinton's victory in the West Virginia primary out of the news cycle and increase the pressure on her to bow out of the race. As Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson just said on MSNBC: "The sound we're about to hear is the sound of a door closing."
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