Edwards spikes up

Looks like there's no chance in hell of stopping the Obama Express in South Carolina, but here was some moderately (and unfortunately, that's all it is, but at this stage I'll take anything I can get) good news: John Edwards might come in second:

While still in third, Edwards’ poll numbers have been rising since Monday’s Myrtle Beach debate.

One new poll says Edwards is threatening U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York for second place in South Carolina. However, no poll finds him threatening the S.C. leader, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois.

For instance, a less favorable poll for Edwards — from McClatchy/MSNBC, released Thursday — showed Obama favored by 38 percent of S.C. voters, Clinton at 30 percent and Edwards at 19 percent. An Ebony/Jet magazine poll was similar. It has Obama at 37 percent, Clinton at 27 percent and Edwards at 15 percent.

The three new polls, released Thursday, found a high number of voters are undecided.

According to the latest Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll, Edwards has gained 4 percentage points since Wednesday and is the choice of 19 percent of likely voters. Obama maintains the S.C. lead at 39 percent but his lead is down 4 percentage points over Clinton from a day earlier.

As Bill Clinton himself indicated earlier this week, Obama's victory in South Carolina is pretty much a done deal, and may effectively finish off the Edwards campaign, despite the senator's talk about taking the battle all the way to the convention. Too bad, as Edwards has always struck me as the only candidate who really seems to be to care or understand that much about issues affecting the middle or underclass. Alas, this is a historic race where history just plain isn't on his side.

Anyway. He has my vote.