Uh Oh!
Lee Bandy in The State (South Carolina) - NAACP Boycott:

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards has backpedaled in his support for the NAACP's economic boycott of South Carolina to protest the flying of the Confederate battle flag on the State House grounds.

On a campaign swing through the state on Martin Luther King Jr. Day last month, the U.S. senator from North Carolina told reporters he would honor the boycott.

Now, however, Edwards' campaign will lease space in the state, and his staff will be free to eat at restaurants and stay in hotels, campaign spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri said.

Edwards himself will stay with friends while campaigning in South Carolina as a symbolic show of solidarity.

Democrats are big on symbolic shows.

The issue could play a role in the state's first-in-the-South primary on Feb. 4, 2004. South Carolina is the first Southern primary in which African-Americans are expected to make up half of the voters.

Edwards' political action committee, the New American Optimists, already had been spending money in South Carolina in violation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People boycott.
...
According to a year-end report filed with the Federal Election Commission, the Edwards PAC has spent more than $2,000 since last May on restaurants, gasoline, car rentals and lodging.
...
The FEC report shows the campaign spent money at several Columbia haunts, including Yesterdays in Five Points, Hunter Gatherer Brewery, Delaney's in Five Points, The Publick House, Lizard's Thicket on Two Notch Road, Quality Inn and Suites at Blythewood, and Clarion Town House.

Yee haw! Partying down at The Publick House with Jennifer Palmieri! Hmmm, what's he going to tell the Southern Baptists?

State Sen. John Courson, R-Richland, who crafted the initial legislation that ultimately led to the flag's being taken off the State House dome, said Edwards "has had almost every position possible on this issue."

"It can only make you wonder what John Edwards' position on the boycott or any other issue will be the next time he visits our state."

The six announced candidates have all denounced the banner as a divisive symbol and say it should be removed from the Capitol grounds and placed in a museum.

But only Edwards and New York civil rights activist Al Sharpton have indicated they would honor the boycott by not spending money in the state.

Actually, Johnny has a very consistent position - he'll do anything to get elected.