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Joe Trippi--the Exit Interview

For those who haven't seen (or at least not read) my interview with Joe Trippi today, allow me to pass along one of the more interesting riffs. It helps explain why Edwards appeared to ambush Obama at the South Carolina debate a few weeks back:

The other thing is that, in my own view, that was the first week where we had really thought long and hard about getting out of the race. We didn't talk about it between New Hampshire and Nevada. After Nevada, John Edwards, none of us, the people working for him, wanted to go to his home state and get four percent. Going into that last debate, we had a long talk that day about maybe getting out before South Carolina, after the debate. My own personal view is that he went into that debate saying, "Damn it. I may be getting out tomorrow. You're going to know I was here." You don't know what's going on mentally. That's why I told him that night that he came back. I've never been as proud of anybody as I was for what he did that night.

--Noam Scheiber