I admit that Obama and Clinton were not my first choices; I would have preferred John Edwards.  And I agree with Joe Trippi that had Edwards chosen to stay in the race past Super Tuesday (the first Super Tuesday), it would have been a better race -- less embittered, perhaps, less focussed on the individual qualities of the two candidates, less divisive over issues of race and character.

That having been said, Obama is now pretty obviously going to be the Democratic candidate.  And I also think it's pretty obvious that Hillary Clinton is not going to be his vice presidential nominee.

Obama is going to choose someone from among those who either ran against him early on, or other prominent Democrats.  

I'm convinced that John Edwards is the best possible choice -- for loads of reasons, but primarily for practical ones.  

No, not that kind of change.  Not George Bush's "regime change".  People who really care about Iran, who want to help the people of Iran, don't support making war on that country.  

What we should all be doing is building support for the global day of action called by the international trade union movement for March 6th -- and before that, sending off messages of protest to the Iranian government for its persecution of trade unionists - here

The day of action is specifically focussed on jailed dissident Iranian workers such as Mansour Osanloo, who leads the Tehran bus workers, and Mahmoud Salehi.  These brave men have stood up for the right to join and form trade unions which is recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights -- and they languish in Iranian prisons despite poor health.

A spectre is haunting American politics -- the spectre of John Edwards.  A week after "suspending" his campaign, the former North Carolina Senator received over 380,000 votes in super Tuesday primaries.

"I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part." - Otter, "Animal House" (1978)

I am about to propose something which is certainly futile and maybe stupid too.

I've been talking in recent days to people who, like me, supported the candidacy of John Edwards.

I've found that most of us are in a bind: we don't really have a clear preference for one or the other Democratic candidate.

"He doesn't know it's a damn show! He thinks it's a damn fight!" - Apollo Creed's trainer, "Rocky" (1976)

For once the pundits and the pollsters seem to have gotten it right.  South Carolina was a big win for Obama; Clinton did take second place; and Edwards got nearly precisely the numbers predicted for him in the last Zogby/CNN poll.  They can now calmly return to doing what they were doing before, confident that what they say is true and that everyone is doing what they have been scripted to do.

Except that John Edwards is not doing what he is supposed to do.  He doesn't know it's a damn show.  He thinks it's a damn fight.

For an entire generation of Americans, Upton Sinclair will be known -- if he is known at all -- as the guy who wrote the book that was the basis for the movie "There Will Be Blood".

To an earlier generation, he was known as the author of muckraking books such as "The Jungle".

Political historians will known Sinclair as one of the most famous members of the American Socialist Party who made history in 1934 when, running as a Democrat he very nearly won election as governor of California.

When the mainstream media gets it wrong covering the campaign, one can suspect conspiracy.  But when they get it wrong concerning unions in the campaign, it's almost always due to ignorance.  To put it bluntly, most journalists know f***-all about labor unions and can't make head or tail of the information they're given.

Take for example two union endorsements that were announced in the media this week.  A couple of days ago, CNN headlined "Clinton to receive major union endorsement".  The union turned out to be the United Farm Workers (UFW) -- a union that commands enormous respect and has a tremendous history, but whose membership is at most 27,000, nationwide.  Baby boomers will remember the union's glory days during the grape and lettuce boycotts when it had triple that number of members.  But those days are long gone.  Calling this a "major union" is a bit of a stretch.

For the first time ever, Democrats Abroad (DA) is holding a global primary to select its delegates to the Democratic National Convention.  The organization is recognized as a "state party", has seats on the Democratic National Committee, chapters in dozens of countries, and 22 delegates to the August convention in Denver.

Voting takes place both in physical locations, online, and by fax or post, and the contest runs for an entire week, starting on Super Tuesday, February 5th.  Probably the largest chapter of DA is based in London, England, and it is expected that 700 or more Democrats will show up physically to vote and to participate in a town hall meeting in cental London.  Representatives of the various campaigns will have stalls displaying campaign literature and each will get a chance to speak.  Similar events are taking place all over the world.

If previous Democratic presidential contests are any guide, at a certain stage in this process all of the leading candidates except for one will drop out of the race.  And then they will all rally around the leader, pledging party unity in the battle against the Republicans.  

The process has already begun with the withdrawal of most second-tier Democrats such as Richardson, Biden and Dodd.  And it doesn't need to include candidates who are not picking up any delegates such as Kucinich and Gravel.  We're now at the stage where it's likely that Clinton or Obama (my money is on Clinton) will surge ahead, probably on Super Tuesday, February 5th.  And that makes it increasingly likely that one of the two of them, facing the likelihood of defeat, will do what every other second-place Democrat has done since 1980 -- they will withdraw from the race and endorse the front runner.

Which leaves the field open to John Edwards -- if he chooses to stay in the race -- to be the sole opposition to what is likely to be a Clinton candidacy.