John Edwards has been running for president since 2000, when he began appearing in Iowa. Over the last eight years, his campaign has used a theme of "two Americas," the haves and the have nots. He touched on that message last night in Michigan. “There is one man that knows how to create the lasting change that you have to build from the ground up. There is one man who knows in his heart that it is time to create one America, not two, and that man is Barack Obama,” he told Obama supporters in Grand Rapids last night.

Edwards's endorsement of Obama is a blow to Clinton's argument that white, working-class Democrats won't support Obama in November. If Edwards works hard to campaign for Obama in Kentucky, he could drain some of Clinton's support. Edwards as the party emblem of blue-collar values was evident Tuesday night in West Virginia, where he carried seven percent of the vote. That percentage was seen largely as a protest vote - a rejection of both the perception that Obama is the presumptive nominee, and Clinton as the anti-Obama. "When this nomination battle is over, and it will be over soon, brothers and sisters we must come together as Democrats and in the fall stand up for what matters for the future of America," Edwards said. Obama seems ready to carry Edwards's populist appeal. "The fight for American manufacturing is the fight for America's future," he last night in Michigan. "Our job has to be to fight to make the economy is fair again."

Photo from Obama's flickrstream