A tepid return home for Edwards?

John Edwards returned Wednesday to his native South Carolina after a distant third-place finish in the New Hampshire Primary. The Observer's Taylor Bright covered an Edwards' campaign stop at Clemson University, where Taylor reports the speech was short and the crowd less than raucous - despite the effort of Edwards staffers.

Primary Source: So how was John Edwards first post-New Hampshire day in South Carolina?

Bright: The crowd was not full of John Edwards supporters - though they were definitely there. It was an interesting place to have a campaign. Though Edwards was born in nearby Seneca, the Upstate is now overwhelmingly Republican.

Most of the crowd was made up of curious Clemson students. At one point, the Edwards staffers were having trouble getting any students to hold up Edwards campaign signs. This was the exchange I jotted down from some of the students:

"You guys want them?"
"Hell, no."
"I'll spit on it."

Still, overall, the crowd was polite if not loud or enthusiastic despite the efforts from the Edwards staff. Edwards was upbeat and looked good for someone who has just campaigned strong in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Typical of the crowd was Suzanne Price, 33, who works at Clemson. She likes what Edwards said, but doesn't' think he can win after his two losses.

"I would like to see him as a vice-presidential candidate," Price said.

In fact, most of the people I talked to who had made up their minds were voting for Hillary Clinton.

Primary Source: Edwards said last night he was in it for the long haul. Any equivocations on that today from him or his staff?

Bright: He emphatically said he was in it until he got to the White House. Any suggestion that he would pull out after South Carolina seemed to irk him a little bit - which is understandable. No candidate worth his salt is going to talk about withdrawing from the race when they're still campaigning.

"Long haul is to the White House," Edwards said. "How many different ways do you want me to say this?"

Afterwards his spokeswoman, Teresa Wells, said, "That's all we have to say about it."

Edwards needs to win South Carolina to stay competitive - although there would be a slight chance he could do well enough in the Super Tuesday to propel him. If he doesn't, the question of his staying in the race may be more germane. But, right now, Edwards is counting on his birth state - and a state he won in 2004 - to make him a contender.

Primary Source: What was today's message for voters?

Bright: He talked about how he was one of them - a son of a mill worker - and asked them to remind their friends that he was a product of the South - "The last thing you can tell them, is I'm from here, I know what your lives are like, and I will never, including when I'm President of the United States, I will never forget where I came from," he said.

Of course, he used components of his stump speech - a strong environment, the winds of change, a representative of the working man - but his primary goal seemed to be to get a jump on South Carolina and remind people that he was born in a little pink house in Seneca.