He’s been asked twice if he’ll rally round the donkey and support Hillary if she’s the nominee. Both times, he’s declined to answer the question. The NYT quotes him:

“I’m not willing to talk about that at this point,” he said, waiting silently until the next question was asked.

It may be unintentional, but the picture I get from that is of Edwards sniffing a bit, clinching and just waiting for the moment to pass while everyone absorbs his radiant petulance.

And when he’s not refusing to support the Glacier, he’s out there making promises he can’t keep. Kind of like he did in 2004 when he promised that if he and John Kerry were elected, people suffering from grievous injuries like Christopher Reeve would get up and walk.

So what does all this mean? Is he really this angry or is he just playing hard to get for a future Clinton administration?

The anger seems real enough, but it’s impossible to explain (and the way he wears it, it comes across more as childish temper than righteous anger or real leadership). John Edwards made millions as a trial lawyer, built himself a house the size of a county court house, was elected to the US Senate and has been his party’s nominee for vice president. Though he has no relevant experience on his resume, he’s being taken seriously as a candidate for the presidency. His family has known some tragedy, but so have most American families, and most Americans don’t turn from sunny junior senator to rabid hard left populist in the span of a few years. The change in Edwards is obvious enough that even Sen. Chris Dodd doesn’t seem to recognize the senator he once knew.

“I am surprised at just how angry John has become. This is not the same John Edwards I once knew,” Dodd, D-Conn., said in a statement released by his campaign Tuesday.

Whatever is going on with Edwards, he’s projecting anger more than reason and more than anything, coming off as a bit of a crank. It’ll help him with the fightin’ nutroots who want Anybody but Hillary (as long as they’re liberal and want to lose Iraq as fast as possible), but probably not with anyone else.