JOHN EDWARDS ENDORSES BARACK OBAMA!

(AP photo)

In a move as shocking for its timing as it is for its impact, former Senator and Presidential Candidate John Edwards has just officially endorsed Senator Barack Obama for President. Edwards did this at a previously scheduled Obama campaign visit in Grand Rapids, Michigan, but it could not have been better timed.

While Senator Obama was already well on his way to sewing-up the Democratic Presidential Nomination, he'd just been clobbered in West Virginia by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. While Obama did not campaign heavily there, the idea was being launched -- by Clinton herself -- that she and not Obama could win the "poor, undereducated, working-class white vote."

When was the last time you heard that description of a group of people?

At any rate, the next day -- today -- Barack Obama took the media wind out of Senator Clinton's sails with this annoucement. And while John Edwards played it cool in the introduction -- like a master poker player who knew he played the right hand at the right time -- Edwards gave a rousing speech that rivaled the best stem-winders this election has seen and managed to calm would-be Clinton supporters by giving her and them just respect, then saving his best emotion and prose for Senator Obama.

The next most obvious question is will Senator Obama pick Senator Edwards as his running mate? Personally, I think an Obama / Edwards ticket is a winner, not just for this campaign, but for the this generation.