Update: Someone finally mentioned this point on MSNBC. The response “Oh yeah, good point” then they cut to the headlines before commercial.

I am watching some of the commentary coming out on the John Kerry announcement and it is solely focused on Hillary Clinton vs. Barack Obama. Specifically everyone is commenting on the Kerry/Clinton relationship and how there might be some “political payback” for perceived strain after the 2004 election and Ms. Clinton taking many potential Kerry donors.

Not mentioned? The fact that John Edwards was Kerry’s pick for Vice President. Much has been made of their strained relationship over the years BUT it is a continued sign of how the media is framing this as a two-person race with almost no focus on Edwards. It would seem like, at the very least, someone might want to toss in as a footnote the fact that a former nominee is not endorsing his running mate.

With that said, it is probably good for Edwards that no one is focusing on the fact.

It looks like John Edwards will repeat the 36-Hour marathon he conducted before the Iowa caucus in New Hampshire. From the campaign:

ON HEELS OF COMMANDING DEBATE PERFORMANCE, JOHN AND ELIZABETH EDWARDS TO LAUNCH 36-HOUR NEW HAMPSHIRE “MARATHON FOR THE MIDDLE CLASS”

Manchester, New Hampshire – In the final hours leading up to the New Hampshire primary, John and Elizabeth Edwards will hold a 36-hour “Marathon for the Middle Class” in New Hampshire. Starting today at noon, John and Elizabeth will campaign for 36 hours straight to talk to thousands of voters at rallies and town halls across the Granite State.
As he makes his closing argument to New Hampshire voters, Senator Edwards will highlight his bold plans to stand up to the powerful entrenched interests and give hard-working, middle class families a voice in Washington.

“Families in New Hampshire and across America are struggling to afford the skyrocketing costs of health care, $100-a-barrel oil, and the rising cost of college,” Edwards said. “The truth is, middle class families are working harder everyday just to get by, and they deserve a president who works just has hard for the real change our country so desperately needs.

“Over the next 36 hours, I’m looking forward to meeting with New Hampshire voters who are as restless as I am for change – and who understand that making change happen is going to take a fight. If we don’t send someone into the White House who will fight for regular Americans, nothing is going to change. But if we stand up together, we can take on the entrenched interests and restore the promise of America.”

Edwards will kick off the “Marathon for the Middle Class” today at a town hall at noon in Manchester. Over the course of the next 36 hours, Edwards will crisscross the state meeting with voters and supporters in Keene, Derry, Nashua, Berlin, Claremont, Lakeport, Bedford, Hampton, Dover, Somersworth, Rochester, and Durham. The marathon will end with a Graniteroots event at the John Edwards for President office in Portsmouth at 12:30 AM on Tuesday.

On Friday morning, Edwards kicked off a four day “Main Street Express – Real Change Starts Now” tour. Leading up to the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, Edwards has been joined by his wife Elizabeth and their children Cate, Emma Claire and Jack as well as John’s parents Bobbie and Wallace. Today, Elizabeth joins Senator Edwards at the events in Manchester, Derry and Nashua, as well as the majority of events on Monday.

Also joining Edwards on the “Main Street Express” are Edwards’ supporters James and Cindy Lowe, Sandy Lakey, and the family of Nataline Sarkisyan, as well as celebrities Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon.

Neutralize Clinton as the old, equalize himself with Obama as the change candidate, cut the head off of Obama by saying he doesn’t have the ability to actually bring about change.

Why Do It This Way? Classic pickle-in-the-middle. Let Clinton continue hitting Obama as inexperienced, let Obama hit Clinton as being the status quo and untrustworthy, jump into the spotlight and get as much media attention as possible to provide actual policy positions while Obama seemingly avoids them. “Obama has a more philosophical, academic approach” is how he put it on CNN a moment ago.

Second stance? ‘They have all the money, I am the underdog.’

My take? It is probably the best bet he has. Let Clinton hang herself and do the heavy negative lifting against Obama. Let Obama attack Clinton and hope he continues to avoid specifics when the debates come.

Not long ago Edwards and Obama pulled a 1-2 punch on Senator Hillary Clinton looking to knock her off the “front-runner” status. Now with a win in Iowa, newfound media attention, millions raised and the front-runner status on his back, Barack Obama is the new target.

Today John Edwards campaign manager David Bonior launched into the Illinois Senator charging that he was once a “sell-out for corporate interests” making the charge on MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough program.

“Barack Obama’s kind of change is where you sit down and you cut a deal with the corporate world,” Bonior said. “If you look at his record in Illinois when he had a major — sponsored a major health bill that’s what he did. He watered down with the help of the corporate lobbyist and they got a weak product out of that.”

Meanwhile Hillary Clinton warned against “false hope” in New Hampshire

“We can’t have false hopes. We’ve got to have a person who can walk into that Oval office on day one and start doing the hard work that it takes to deliver change,” she said.

The Edwards campaign held a conference call tonight looking ahead to organizing for New Hampshire. I did not have the time to listen to the whole thing but I did think it was interesting to hear the campaign working on organizing out-of-state volunteers. It was also nice to hear a surprise visitors, Wallace Edwards who is John Edwards father, get on the line to welcome volunteers and thank them for their support.

After a year of all the candidates courting Iowa it is amazing to see it all wind down so quickly and see candidates already moving ahead. The candidate will be holding a rally at 6:15AM at Tower Mills in Manchester New Hampshire Friday, the morning after the Caucus.

When I called in there were 150 or so people they said were on the line. I typically skip listening to all of these conference calls for the campaigns because, honestly, they are a bit of a nightmare. Lots of confusion and technical problems and not much news come out of them.

“It’s just complete untruth,” she said. “I’ll speak on behalf of Senator Clinton as well. Both Senator Clinton’s and John Edwards’s health care plans cover one hundred percent of Americans and Senator Obama’s does not.”

Meanwhile her husband said of Kucinich’s advice for his supporters to Caucus for Obama if he doesn’t reach viability:

“It’s very hard to tell Iowa caucusgoers what to do, I think they’ll make up their own minds.”

Ralph Nader, the green party candidate in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections and a popular figure with liberal democrats, has thrown his support to John Edwards, while labeling Sen. Hillary Clinton as a corporate democrat who does not challenge military spending. Nader is urging liberals to turn out for John Edwards saying Clinton would “pander to corporate interest groups”.

From the New York Times:

The ground war — the laborious, unglamorous process of identifying supporters and making sure they show up to make their preference known when it counts — has always been a critical part of the contest in Iowa. But the turnout effort among Democrats this time around has exploded into the most ambitious and costly in the history of this state’s presidential caucus system, and it puts on display the sharply diverging strategies the candidates are pursuing as they hurtle toward the first real test of the 2008 campaign.

Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama are trying to expand the tiny universe of caucusgoers, a fundamental shift in the way candidates have approached the Iowa caucuses. Mr. Edwards is focusing mainly on voters who have reliably voted in the past.

Programs include driving voters to the polls, babysitting, providing snow shovels, free food and more to entice, delight and get out the vote.

Edwards suggests taking down Musharraf could result in instability. Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto rejects the claim and suggests it is a repeating of Musharraf’s own scare tactics.

From CNN and candidate blogs:
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