Howard Wolfson is claiming that the MSM’s silence on John Edwards cost Hillary Iowa, and therefore, the nomination.

I think Edwards killing Hillary’s chances of getting the nomination happened much earlier, however. October 30th at the Democratic debate in Philadelphia to be exact. Hillary had just fought herself off the ropes under questioning from Chris Dodd on then Governor Eliot Spitzer’s plan to give illegal immigrants driver licenses. Brian Williams was ready to change the subject and that’s when John Edwards jumped in the ring for the soundbite of the debate:

WILLIAMS: New subject, Senator Edwards.You have young children. As you know, the Internet can be a bit of a cultural wild west.Assuming a lot of homes don’t have parental support, would you be in favor of any government guidelines on Internet content?EDWARDS: For children? To try to protect children — using technology to protect children, I would.I want to add something that Chris Dodd just said a minute ago, because I don’t want it to go unnoticed. Unless I missed something, Senator Clinton said two different things in the course of about two minutes just a few minutes ago.And I think this is a real issue for the country. I mean, America is looking for a president who will say the same thing, who will be consistent, who will be straight with them. Because what we’ve had for seven years is double-talk from Bush and from Cheney, and I think America deserves us to be straight.WILLIAMS: Senator Obama, why are you nodding your head?OBAMA: Well, I was confused on Senator Clinton’s answer. I can’t tell whether she was for it or against it. And I do think that is important. One of the things that we have to do in this country is to be honest about the challenges that we face.Immigration is a difficult issue. But part of leadership is not just looking backwards and seeing what’s popular or trying to gauge popular sentiment. It’s about setting a direction for the country. And that’s what I intend to do as president.RUSSERT: Are you for it or against it?OBAMA: I think that it is the right idea, and I disagree with Chris because there is a public safety concern. We can make sure that drivers who are illegal come out of the shadows, that they can be tracked, that they are properly trained, and that will make our roads safer.That doesn’t negate the need for us to reform illegal immigration.

Obama, however, was never questioned on his non-answer and the next question was the all important question to Rep. Kucinich on UFOs. After that moment, the conventional wisdom shifted to Hillary as beatable.

Keep in mind the date of the Philly debate: October 30. Sam Stein of the HuffPo broke the Rielle Hunter story on September 26, 2007. The Enquirer story came out on October 10, 2007.