Whatever happened to John Edwards?

I’ve been surprised that I’m not hearing John Edwards mentioned very frequently when people speculate about the Democratic nominee in 2008. It’s true that Edwards didn’t add anything to the ticket in 2004. However, I doubt that anyone holds him responsible for Kerry’s defeat, and Edwards remains a charismatic figure from the only region that has produced Democratic presidents in recent memory.
After reading George Will’s column about Edwards, though, I can see what all the non-buzz is about. Edwards’ pet issue on which he hopes to center his run for the presidency is poverty, a matter about which (as Will shows) Edwards seems badly informed. Edwards’s problem is not that the Democrats aren’t looking for clueless demagoguery, it’s that they’re looking for it mainly with respect to foreign policy and security issues.