A one-time advisor to John Edwards was speechless.

Dave "Mudcat" Saunders, a former rural strategist for the former North Carolina senator, had nothing to say to one of what he sardonically estimated as 200 reporters to call him this afternoon about Edwards' admission of an extramarital affair.

"You can put this: Mudcat Saunders for the first time in his life says 'no comment,'" said the normally voluble strategist.

Saunders cited his personal relationship to the Edwards family. 

David "Mudcat" Saunders has his own take on John Edwards' endorsement.

A chief adviser to Edwards' presidential campaign on rural affairs, Saunders said the timing of the loss couldn't be better given Obama's resounding loss in West Virginia Tuesday, the Associated Press reports.

And, being a man named Mudcat after all, he put it in his own inimitable way: 

"For Barack Obama, I think he ought to kiss Johnny Edwards on the lips to kill this 41-point loss," he said. "The story is not going to be the 41-point loss. It's going to be Edwards' endorsement."

John Edwards decided to drop out over the last several days.

After finishing third in South Carolina, he came back home to Orange County and had a family conference with his wife, Elizabeth. He decided not to keep running through the convention.

"Love for Elizabeth had a lot to do with it," said Dave "Mudcat" Saunders, a campaign adviser who said he was speaking for himself. "I think he wanted to be with his family."

As late as 11 am. Tuesday, the campaign sent out an e-mail message to its finance team. But later that day, Edwards called Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton suggesting that he was about to leave the race.

So far, he has not made an endorsement. For it to be effective, however, he'll have to make it between now and Feb. 5, the so-called Super Tuesday. (N&O)

SPENCER, Iowa—Democrat John Edwards has a new traveling companion as he stumps through rural northwest Iowa today: "Cooter."

Former Georgia Congressman Ben Jones, who played the tow-truck driving "Cooter" on the old "Dukes of Hazard" TV show, joined the campaign for its swing to small towns spaced between the snow-covered fields of this part of the state, Jim Morrill reports.

Jones is part of the campaign's concerted effort to appeal to rural voters, who because of the particular calculus of Thursday's caucuses, could have a disproportionate impact on the outcome.

Here, as at other stops, voters watched a DVD that features Jones and Edwards' rural adviser "Mudcat" Saunders as well as Edwards' parents from Robbins, N.C. It taps into Edwards' background in rural North and South Carolina.

"As we say back home, he ain't got above his raisin'," Jones told about 200 people packed into a community college room.

"We're supposed to be the people's party," he told another audience this morning. "John Edwards understands that. He comes from the heartland."