Edwards squelches speculation that she would endorse Clinton, saying she \"was never inclined to endorse.\" Elizabeth Edwards: Not backing Hillary

Elizabeth Edwards on Sunday rejected speculation that she might endorse New York Sen. Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination.

“If you listened to what I said and not to what pundits said I was thinking, you would know that I was never inclined to endorse,” Edwards wrote in an e-mail to Politico Sunday afternoon.


Speculation about whether she might back Clinton spiked when Edwards did not appear Wednesday with her husband, former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, during his endorsement of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, who is winning the support of an increasing number of party leaders and superdelegates as he appears poised to edge out Clinton for the nomination.

Elizabeth Edwards told Politico that she was “as usual, a sounding board for my husband, but, also as usual, his decision was ultimately his own, which is as it should be. I never encouraged him to support a particular candidate, only to follow his heart.”

John Edwards emphasized poverty and health care themes during his own bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. After he dropped out of the race in January, both Obama and Clinton aggressively courted his endorsement.

Edwards’ support could boost Obama’s credibility with the blue-collar white voters who have flocked to Clinton. Likewise, Elizabeth Edwards’ endorsement could have helped Clinton with her husband’s supporters but also with voters who are most concerned about health care issues and with netroots activists, among whom she is popular.

A public figure in her own right who has accepted a health care-focused fellowship at the liberal Center for American Progress, Edwards gained standing in the left flank of the Democratic Party during her husband’s presidential campaign. She simultaneously fought breast cancer, advocated for his universal health care plan and served as an aggressive surrogate, with both Obama and Clinton at times feeling her bite.

After Edwards’ no-show at her husband’s endorsement of Obama, the Clinton campaign was happy to let speculation swirl about a possible Elizabeth Edwards endorsement, and the New York senator fueled it the next day.

Responding to a question about John Edwards’ endorsement, she revealed that she talked to Elizabeth – but not John – Edwards afterward.

“I haven’t talked to him,” she told reporters Thursday at the airport in Rapid City, S.D. “I’ve spoken to Elizabeth Edwards. She’s a friend of mine and I have a very high regard for her and I think it’s important that she remain a strong advocate and real champion for universal health care.”

Clinton devoted most of her answer to praising Elizabeth Edwards, but wouldn’t characterize their conversation. Her campaign said the two women would likely continue to talk and that Clinton would welcome, but did not expect, an endorsement.

Edwards has expressed support for Clinton’s health care plan – but she stressed in her e-mail to Politico that her support was limited to Clinton’s plan, not her campaign.

“If I say I like chocolate ice cream better than strawberry, it doesn't mean either (1) that I like chocolate or strawberry as much as vanilla or (2) that I dislike strawberry. I say what I mean. Hillary's health care plan is closer to what I want to see than Barack's,” she wrote. “As a spouse, it is not surprising that I have a very small change purse of political capital and I have repeatedly said that I was going to use my capital, such as it is, for the issues about which I care and not on an endorsement.”

As for her personal relationships with Clinton and Obama, Edwards wrote, “I like both (or, counting spouses, all four) of these people personally. Do we play Boggle together or go biking together? No, although it would be okay with me if we did. They are interesting, compelling people with many of the same thoughts as I have about the issues that confront us.”

Edwards also noted, “I will support the Democrat nominee and work hard to make certain that person becomes President.”

Last week, at a thank-you event in New York for her husband’s presidential campaign, she told donors and staffers that she did not intend to publicly endorse a candidate until after the nomination had been decided, according to a source who worked with both John and Elizabeth Edwards and attended the event.

The source said Edwards was involved in talks with both candidates when they interrupted their campaigns to visit her home in Chapel Hill, N.C., seeking her husband’s endorsement.

“I’m not surprised at all that she’s operating independently from him on this,” the source said. “That’s very much her style. It’s her decision to make who she wants to support, if anyone.”

John Edwards had also indicated he didn’t plan to render an endorsement, until just before he actually did so.

As recently as May 5 – the day before the primaries in their home state and in Indiana – the Edwardses in a joint interview from their Chapel Hill kitchen told People magazine they wouldn’t endorse.

In the interview, Elizabeth Edwards reiterated her support for Clinton’s health care plan. She said she didn’t like Obama’s plan “or his advertising on health care, which I think is misleading.”

She also added, though, that she didn’t like that Clinton’s campaign accepts contributions from lobbyists, which both Obama and Edwards rejected in their campaigns.

Last year, Edwards told Salon that her husband was a more vocal advocate for women’s issues than Clinton and, in an interview with the Associated Press, accused Clinton of copying John Edwards’ plan for universal health care.

But the two women eventually found common ground on the issue, with Elizabeth Edwards last month announcing her preference for it over Obama’s, which lacks a mandate that all people be covered.

“You need that universality in order to get the cost savings,” Edwards said in an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” She added she had “more confidence in Sen. Clinton's policy than Sen. Obama's on this particular issue.”

In Rapid City, Clinton said Edwards “has done a great deal to promote what is one of the most important issues we have. … I don’t think a Democratic nominee for president should have any position other than universal health care. It’s been a position in our platform since Harry Truman. There are different ways of getting there, but we’ve got to remain committed to universal health care and Elizabeth Edwards and I agree on that.”