The Dems have been eating each other for at least forty years, so that's nothing new.  Edwards was very much in the running prior to the post-Iowa blackout, and let's be honest: It was the cry and Bill Clinton's pre-NH meltdown that did the most to assist that.

There was only ever going to be one anti-Clinton vote.  The press made sure of that by solidifying her status throughout 5/6s of 2007.  There was a shot at changing that -- or at least I'd hoped there was -- after Iowa, but they're the Clintons.  For all the talk of the press "hating them" (a total crock of shit given how reporters play into their narratives), the primaries were written as Hillary vs Someone Else long ago, as anyone who's watched the whole time knows.

Of course people vote for whomever makes them feel good.  And Edwards is no exception there.  And, yes, it fucking stupid.

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Agreed on all counts.
I've marveled for many years at the American lack of the ability to cooperate, to compromise, to adopt a strategy incorporating common social goals, on all sides of the social spectrum in the US. The Repubs don't really do much better- the rank and file Repub just surrendered his or her input, and took what was served up on the political/ideological plate--and their party has been largely destroyed as a consequence. And now that I've a good big dose of life and politics in Europe, it's the same-a bloody epidemic of squabbling over chicken bones, while the same old oligarchy eats the chicken.
I search for central causes- social processes, ideas that might be the major influences in producing such a gigantic body of tame people, and ironically, it often seems to come down to "competition" as embodied in the neoliberal/capitalist story.
A linear, two-dimensional mechanistic story that reifies "competition" as a way to improve things, and is widely believed, made Edwards' story of strength through cooperation, compassion, class consciousness  --- just incomprehensible.     He never had a chance.


"There is mysterious music in democracy, when people decide to believe in themselves." ---Bill Greider, The Nation.