He certainly has reason to celebrate. After months of obscurity, Edwards’s message–part populist harangue against an economically and socially divided America, part unifying vision of hope–finally seems to be resonating with voters. He has a Clintonesque ability to convey empathy to those he meets and an appealing life story as a mill worker’s son and perennial underdog. With his eye-crinkling smile and relentless positivity, Edwards has also managed to raise himself above the unseemly sniping that has occurred between some of his fellow contenders. It all paid off in Iowa. He focused on small, rural towns similar to the one he grew up in, cobbled together a grass-roots organization that the pundits underestimated and came away with 32 percent of the state’s delegates (behind only Sen. John Kerry, who won 38 percent). The most pressing question now: how does Edwards sustain his momentum as the battle becomes more bruising and the media scrutiny intensifies?
For now at least, Edwards is on a roll. In the wake of Iowa, endorsements and cash–which he hasn’t raised as effectively as some rivals–are both flowing his way. The campaign banked $250,000 in online contributions in the first 24 hours after the caucuses. Online traffic was so heavy that it shut down a server. According to campaign chair Ed Turlington, deep-pocketed donors are returning his calls more frequently. In New York, where Edwards went Tuesday night to raise money, a second event had to be added to accommodate newfound interest in the candidate. Campaign offices in various states report that volunteers are descending in droves. In one day, Edwards’s Web site added 10,000 people to its e-mail and volunteer lists. He’s also racking up more endorsements by elected officials, many of them former Gephardt supporters. Helping his case, Edwards called Gephardt on caucus night and, in a speech to supporters, extolled the congressman’s public service.
As political observers have noted before, Edwards is a natural campaigner. He bounds off his Real Solutions Express to the soundtrack of John Cougar Mellencamp, his much-admired hair quivering gently. He can rouse an audience to whoops and hollers with his stump speeches. Once he’s done, he wades eagerly into the crowd, listening intently as folks share their grievances. “They seem to feel very comfortable with me,” Edwards says. It’s a skill he honed in his lucrative career as a trial lawyer. As he told a few reporters recently aboard his bus, effective litigating isn’t about “charisma and dominating the courtroom and all that. For me, what worked in the courtroom was having people trust you.” He never talked down to jurors and remained unfailingly polite–qualities he maintains today as he makes his case to the press. (Though he can also come off as supremely self-controlled, replying monosyllabically when a question doesn’t suit him.)
Edwards’s personal touch should serve him well in New Hampshire, where, as in Iowa, campaign events tend to be intimate. On Wednesday night, he was scheduled to hold his 100th town hall meeting–a format he favors, since it allows him to bond with voters and respond to the issues they raise with a roster of precise policy ideas. But Edwards has plenty of ground to make up: he’s trailing far behind Kerry, Gov. Howard Dean, and Gen. Wesley Clark in the polls. Though Edwards’s Iowa performance will likely lend him a boost, it will be tough to advance into the top three by the Jan. 27 primary date.
The panorama looks more promising further ahead. Of the seven states holding primaries on Feb. 3, Edwards is concentrating most intensely on South Carolina, where he was born. He benefits from what’s considered the strongest organization of any of the candidates: four offices, 400 volunteers and a staff that includes the major campaign managers from the state’s last hotly contested Democratic primary in 1994. In the past year, Edwards has visited the state 19 times and been on the air regularly with a number of ads. He also touts more than 75 endorsements, far more than any of his competitors. Like everyone else, he’s fighting hard for an additional one: that of South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn, a Gephardt supporter and influential African-American politician, in a state where blacks could comprise as much as half of primary voters. Edwards called him the day after the Iowa caucus, but Clyburn hasn’t committed to anyone so far. For now, Edwards leads in the state polls. “South Carolina hasn’t had a president since Andrew Jackson,” says Edwards’s state director. “It’s a historic moment for the people of South Carolina, and they are responding to that.”
But in the battle for the South, Edwards must contend with another aspirant with roots in the region. “At some point, we will have to come to terms with General Clark,” says Edwards’s press secretary, Jennifer Palmieri. “He lays claim to some of the same Feb. 3 states” like Oklahoma and Virginia. Edwards hasn’t held back from subtle digs at the general. “If I’m not mistaken, he’s never had a vote cast for him,” said Edwards on caucus night. And while Clark and Lieberman “decided they couldn’t compete here” in Iowa, Edwards added, “I didn’t walk away. I stayed here and fought.” For his part, Edwards is vulnerable to a likely counterargument from the Clark camp: that the North Carolina senator lacks credibility on national-security issues. Edwards seems eager to move beyond that debate. “Ninety-plus percent of the questions [I get] are domestic,” he insisted to NEWSWEEK. National security is “just not what drives the election. It’s more of a background thing.”
But President Bush is certain to make national security a central issue in the general election, as he did in Tuesday’s State of the Union address. Democrats want assurance that their candidate will have the gravitas and gumption to come out swinging against the president. Edwards says he’s itching for that fight. “The few hours I spend sleeping, I spend dreaming about it [debating Bush],” he told an audience in Iowa. But Edwards argues that toughness should be balanced with future-oriented optimism. “I think there is a hunger for strength and the ability to beat Bush and take him on,” Edwards told NEWSWEEK. “I don’t think that requires being nasty.” If he continues to surge, he may earn the chance to prove he’s right.
