The Daily Background

1. What will Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama do to court Edwards supporters? (Their websites are both already making overtures. How much attention will be paid to poverty in Thursday’s debate and henceforth?)

2. Will the bulk of (progressive) Edwards voters choose Obama as the anti-Hillary candidate, or…

3. Will the bulk of (rural, blue collar, White, male) Edwards voters choose Clinton?

4. Which shift will the media cover more? (My guess: almost certainly the latter)

5. What’s next for John himself? (Will he endorse? And if he does, how active does he get in the race? Will he campaign for a candidate?)

Bonus:

6. Will Joe Trippi align himself with a campaign? (And what will become of Edwards’ remaining organization in February 5th states? His pledged delegates? His superdelegates?)

Update: On the delegate matter, the indispensable 2008 Democratic Convention Watch explains:

What happens to his delegates? First, all of his superdelegates go back into the no endorsement pool. (Give us some time to get the posts updated). Second, his 4 delegates from New Hampshire and his 8 delegates from South Carolina will go to the convention as Uncommitted. And finally, his delegates from Iowa don’t exist anymore, but will be replaced with Clinton or Obama delegates. That’s because delegates to the national convention haven’t actually been picked yet in these two states. There are Congressional District and state conventions still to come, and all his delegates to the Congressional District conventions will have to vote for one of the remaining candidates to the state level convention. We’ll get the delegate trackers updated as the day goes on.

Filed under: Z-TDB Blog