Will the Des Moines Register's endorsements help Edwards? I think so, and here's why:

[Stop Cornyn]

I'm talking about the Des Moines Register's endorsement of John McCain.

McCain has been lingering in 5th place in Iowa (but in a virtual tie with Giuliani, Thompson, and Paul for a distant 3rd place well behind Huckabee and Romney).

Yet McCain is in 2nd place and rising in New Hampshire.

A better-than-expected 3rd place finish in Iowa, especially if combined with a worse than expected distant 2nd place finish by Romney, could catapult McCain to a come-from-behind win in New Hampshire.

If McCain can pull off such an insurgence, it would cause a collapse of the Romney campaign, who will have by then blown a big lead in Iowa to Huckabee and a big lead in his next-door-neighbor-state New Hampshire to McCain. This McCain insurgence would also coincide with the now-inevitable end of the zombie-like Thompson campaign (he's currently at a shockingly poor 2% to 3% in New Hampshire), and just as McCain will be looking strongest, Giuliani's campaign will be looking weakest when, as is likely, Giuliani will have competed in two consecutive races where he failed to make the top 3.

If the Des Moines Register's endorsement of John McCain boosts him to a 3rd place finish in Iowa, and Huckabee wins handily in Iowa as expected, all bets are off.

McCain could win the Republican nomination.

If it becomes apparent that McCain may likely win the Republican nomination, you will hear more and more about the fact that McCain beats Hillary head-to-head and Obama can only tie McCain while Edwards wallops McCain by a hefty 8%:

Credit for the graphic to BruinKid at Kos and here is the original source upon which the graph is based.

Clearly, McCain is the Republican's strongest nominee by far.

Equally clearly, Edwards is our strongest nominee against McCain by far.

[Tejanocrat]

1. Spot on!

[Stop Cornyn]

2. I believe that Edwards, Obama, and Hillary would all beat Giuliani and Huckabee; Edwards and Obama

would both also beat Thompson and Romney; but I worry that only Edwards would beat McCain in an election that wouldn't be too close to call.

[Tejanocrat]

5. I agree, but I think even Hillary would beat Lazy Old Man Thompson

[Eileen 9]

3. Will the Des Moines Register's Endorsements Help Edwards?

This was a very interesting analysis and I hope it proves to be correct.

I was heartsick when I learned that the Register had endorsed Hillary - politics as usual, I thought. Especially disappointing as an all-women editorial group had pronounced themselves very dissatisfied with her just a short while ago, and I thought tht meant a good chance for them to endorse the clearly superior Edwards.

So when I read that they caved in and backed Hillary I was disgusted. However, your analysis gives me new hope, for which I thank you.

Edwards came out with specific, intelligent plans on all issues months and months before Clinton or Obama did, and his ideas are still miles ahead of theirs. If the lousy, corporate-driven media would just do their alleged job properly, and not always drool over the power of Clinton and the novelty factor of Obama, Edwards would be getting much better coverage. It is therefore up to us, the sadly ignored but more intelligent segment of the citizenry to spread the word about Edwards and convince our fellows to vote for him.

[Stop Cornyn]

4. If McCain emerges as the Republican nominee, we will sorely need Edwards. I feel good about his

prospects in Iowa, and we'll just have to see how things go beyond Iowa.