'Wash Post' Chat: What Next With Edwards and Rudy Out?

By: E&P Staff After the twin shockwaves of Rudy Giuliani and John Edwards abruptly exiting the race for the White House, what's next? You can find pundits weighing in all over the Web, if you want.

At its web site, The Washington Post's readers chatted this afternoon with longtime CBS political consultant Dotty Lynch. Here are a few excerpts. It's all up at www.washingtonpost.com

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Philadelphia ... Obama Country!: Dotty, thanks for taking my question. Now that Edwards is out and McCain has established himself as the GOP front-runner, is it possible that Obama stands to gain more than Clinton? Specifically, let's look at states with "open" primaries where independents can vote (not sure which states or how many, but there are some). If people believe McCain has it wrapped up, aren't they more likely to vote in the Democratic race, and for Obama?

Dotty Lynch: Your theory about Independents is correct but it is too early to tell about Edwards supporters. In most of the Super Tuesday states he was only getting about 8-10%. Right now demographically, it looks like some, especially older and blue collar voters might trand toward Clinton and his younger and male supporters might chose Obama.

But the next round of polls should answer a lot of these questions.

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Washington: What do you think about an Obama-Edwards ticket?

Dotty Lynch: That would be a very energetic pairing. But, I have a feeling that Edwards may think "been there, done that" when it comes to VP. Running for VP may be particularly unattractive for him. I don't think he enjoyed playing second fiddle to John Kerry.

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Fairfax County, Va.: Why have so many of the Democratic dropouts (Richardson, Edwards) not immediately endorsed someone else?

Dotty Lynch: These candidates have egos and feelings. They spent a lot of time and money running AGAINST the others and it takes some time to "get over it." Giuliani is an exception. I think he has known for a while that Florida was not going to work for him and had decided to back McCain if McCain won the primary.

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Electability: I'm hearing a lot of pundits say the Republicans who don't currently like McCain all that much will come around because he is "electable." That, of course, is the same logic that led Democrats to accept John Kerry so readily as their nominee in 2004 -- and look how that worked out. Could we be seeing a repeat, this time for the other party?

Dotty Lynch: If you recall, the other day John McCain's mother told them to "hold their nose" and vote for her son. It often depends how "hungry" partisans are to retake the White House. In 1992 a lot of liberal Democrats who were wary of Bill Clinton "held their noses" and voted for him because they just wanted a Democrat back.

And it will depend on how worried they are about the Democratic nominee persuing even more policies they don't like.

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Phoenix: Isn't it probable that some Edwards supporters -- who were among those who disliked Clintons and who felt Obama lacked experience -- would lean toward a moderate Republican candidate?

Dotty Lynch: That could happen as well. Although many of Edwards supporters in 2008 were more traditional Democrats, older and blue collar voters who liked his economic populaist message. In 2004 he had more of an independent "yuppie" constituency.