John Edwards Endorses Obama

Following a day of speculation in which Obama's campaign in the race for the Democratic nomination, stated this morning a very important endorsement was about to be announced, news has broken that former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards will endorse Barack Obama tonight at a campaign event in Grand Rapids.

Edwards dropped out of the presidential race more than three months ago and has been waiting to announce whom he would back in the primary. Having earned 19 pledged delegates before he dropped out of the race, Edwards now has the option of releasing those delegates and asking them to vote for Obama. It is expected that the endorsement could help Obama's lead over former first lady Hillary Clinton.

Obama signed on to Edwards' anti-poverty initiative, one of the requirements Edwards sought in the candidate he endored. The anti-poverty initiative, which was announced Tuesday has the goal of reducing poverty in the United States by half within 10 years. Obama's presidential bid gets a terrific boost from the Edwards endorsement and many are speculation as to what role Edwards might take in the eventual presidential cabinet under Obama.

Edwards was very secretive about the endorsement of Obama leading up to the announcement because, he said, he wanted to tell Clinton, a personal friend before the Obama endorsement hit the news.

Current delegate counts according to The Associated Press, show Obama with a total of 1,887 delegates, leaving him just 139 delegates shy of the 2,026 needed to take the nomination. Clinton has 1,718 delegates. The 19 delegates Edwards brings to the table are expected to go to Obama.