Had things descended to the point that sympathizers were leaving foodstuff for the dude and his family even as his withdrawal speech still echoed?

Nah. A campaign worker named Fritz informed me, between answering phone calls from distraught Edwards supporters, that the victuals were for a local food bank that feeds poor people.

Was the box just a prop, something placed in a high-visibility area to illustrate that Edwards' concern for the poor was more than a poll-tested campaign strategy?

If the box was a prop, it didn't work: Championing the poor seems not to have caught traction with primary voters.

Edwards, whom I've only met on the campaign trail, seems like a decent chap, reminding me of scores of mill worker sons I grew up with in Rockingham. Being a decent chap, though, apparently is no longer enough to be elected president, not when you're running against two media stars waging historic campaigns, not when your main focus has been addressing what the Bible calls "the least of these," not when the media lampoon you out of the gate for the price of your haircut.

Many of us now know more about the size and price of John Edwards' Orange County home than we do about his plans to fight what he forthrightly called "economic injustice."

That's a shame. It's also something for which we in the media should be held accountable -- especially if Republican front-runner John McCain becomes president and continues, as he has vowed to do, our disastrous war in Iraq.

Edwards' campaign might have failed to launch even had he lived in the projects and eaten vienna sausages for supper. When stories about his huge crib first sidetracked his campaign, I selflessly offered to trade with him, to let him crash at my pad while I toughed it out at his.

Speaking of pads, cribs and other 1960s-era slang, there was a groundbreaking television show in the late 1960s called "The Mod Squad."

The ads for the show, which featured three young undercover cops, said "one black, one white, one blonde."

Sounds like the front-runners for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, doesn't it?

They looked like America and, regardless of the election's outcome, should make us feel proud of our country that members of such a disparate trio all had legitimate presidential dreams.

That dream died for Edwards on Wednesday. The pall in his campaign headquarters was palpable as the time for his announcement drew nigh.

Somber staff members refused to speak. Some appeared incapable of speaking, so deep was their disappointment.

When I asked staffer Fritz whether someone would talk to me, he said: "We're going to let the senator's words speak for themselves. A lot of the people have been working here for a while, and it's a pretty emotional time."

Indeed it was. There's no need to shed tears for Edwards or for the country. Nobody knows what kind of president he would have made. Heck, he could've turned out to be as bad as the dude we have in that office now.

Who am I kidding? Nobody can be that bad.

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