Opinion: More on the Edwards-Kerry rift

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The final sentences in today’s New York Times story say it all about the dysfunctional pairing of John Kerry and John Edwards as the 2004 Democratic presidential and vice presidential nominees. Indeed, for those too busy preparing for holiday gatherings to read the lengthy piece -- or disinclined to digest more detail about a match we already knew didn’t work out -- we’ll cut to the telling lines:

‘In March (of this year), Mr. Kerry telephoned the Edwardses after Mr. Edwards announced that his wife’s cancer had returned and was incurable, and that he was still running for president. A spokesman for Mr. Kerry said they had had a nice conversation. A spokesman for Mr. Edwards, however, said Mr. Kerry had spoken only with Elizabeth.’

Which got us to thinking ... although no one seems to be beating on Kerry’s door for an endorsement, if he were to decide to make a pick before his party’s choice is obvious, it clearly won’t be his onetime running mate.

The folks at MSNBC’s political shop were similarly ruminating today and offered these thoughts in their daily morning political memo about who Kerry might embrace: ‘[A]nother shoo-in for (Hillary) Clinton, right? No way he goes with an upstart over the experienced candidate? Maybe he sticks by a longtime Senate colleague like Joe Biden?’

Then again, as we suggested, it’s not as if any campaign is losing any sleep about whether and when Kerry endorses. The bigger catch, by far, would be his fellow senator from Massachusetts: Ted Kennedy.

In Democratic intramural skirmishes, a nod from Kennedy still carries some clout; as the MSNBC note recalls, he provided ‘a real shot in the arm’ to Al Gore in 2000 and Kerry four years later ‘when they needed it in Iowa.’

-- Don Frederick