Senator John Edwards has made it official that he is leaving his senate seat for a full-out effort to lose the Democratic nomination. This may be one of the shortest political lives in recent history. In my third entry (in a series of nine) I insisted Edwards drop out of the race and run for re-election. Now that this awkward time has come, I must say that Erskine Bowles (former Clinton Chief-of-Staff) will make a great senator representing North Carolina.

Edwards may win the primary in South Carolina (his neighbor state) but will eventually lose the nomination. His options will be (if he wishes to run for public office) for Governor of North Carolina in 2008, challenging Elizabeth Dole for U.S. Senate in 2008 (which he just left after one term) or the White House in 2008. Either way he will get little attention until that time, which will not allow his name recogntion to grow. This is an unfortunate short-sighted move by (young) Senator John Edwards.