After months playing third wheel to Democratic frontrunners Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, John Edwards dropped out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination today. The former senator from North Carolina has struggled for media airtime and for votes in early Democratic primaries, coming in third place everywhere so far but the Iowa caucuses, where he edged out Sen. Clinton (D-NY) for the second spot. In a Democratic campaign in which the top-tier candidates took similar stances on the key policy issues, Edwards struggled to differentiate himself from his opponents. Edwards focused much of his campaign on ending poverty, and regularly criticized Clinton for her ties to corporate lobbyists.

While critical of Bush administration policy on Iraq, he shied away from vowing to immediately remove all U.S. troops. In a September 2007 Democratic debate, he joined with Obama and Clinton in refusing to pledge to have all troops out by 2013. Instead, he promised to immediately remove all combat forces, but planned to leave several thousand troops in the region, including a “quick-reaction” force in Kuwait. Though Clinton and Edwards both voted in favor of the 2002 Senate resolution authorizing the war, Edwards often drew a contrast between himself and Clinton on that issue, admitting fault for his vote (WashPost).

In a May 2007 speech at the Council on Foreign Relations, Edwards criticized the Bush administration’s war on terror, calling it “a slogan designed only for politics, not a strategy to make America safe.” He called for a major increase in funding for foreign assistance and, in an interview with CFR.org, said the United States should ease humanitarian crises abroad by ceasing to “subsidize large multinational corporate farming operations.” He was also an ardent opponent of Bush administration free trade policies, charging they had contributed to the loss of middle-class U.S. jobs. Analysts credited him with moving the party’s leading candidates to a more populist message on slowing down trade deals to incorporate labor and environment rights, although Edwards criticized Clinton and Obama for voting in favor of the Peru free trade deal at the end of 2007.

With delegates won from the initial primaries, Edwards may play the role of power broker at the Democratic convention next summer, allowing him some influence on the nomination process.