John Edwards during another TV appearance.
Photograph: Gerry Broome/AP
While there is officially no word from the candidate, it's looking all but certain that former senator John Edwards will be joining the race for the Democratic nomination for the 2008 presidential election, after weekend reports leaked apparent plans to announce his candidacy in New Orleans after Christmas.
As the running mate in John Kerry's disastrous 2004 bid for the White House, Edwards may not be inspiring the same kind of widespread excitement that surrounds Barack Obama, but that said, he has been generating a certain clamour in recent public appearances.
They include the obligatory spot on the Daily Show, whose host Jon Stewart seems something of a fan.
Edwards, who is expected to have strong union backing and has been pursuing a social justice agenda, told Stewart that poverty was "a great moral issue for our country".
He said: "The vast majority of people who live in poverty, work ... They're working full-time, minimum wage ... for them this is not about charity, it's about justice, it's about fairness."
Other Democratic possibles have already withdrawn in the face of Obama's and Hillary Clinton's probable candidacies, but there is comfort for Edwards from Salon, which says: "The TV news notion that the Democratic choice has already been winnowed down to Hillary versus Barack is ludicrously premature."
Edwards's online presence, titled the One America Committee, certainly looks bafflingly grand for anyone with less than presidential ambitions.
