Posted 1/17/2004 5:52 PM
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USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll results
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Run for the White House
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2004 political calendar: Key primaries come early
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Today's Top Political Stories
• Bush uses State of Union to frame re-election agenda - 6:00 PM
• Kerry charges rivals with 'smear' effort - 5:57 PM
• Edwards claims momentum in caucuses on his side - 5:52 PM
• Candidates vie for momentum in Iowa - 3:21 PM
• Rivals cool rhetoric but step up intensity - 3:06 PM
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Edwards claims momentum in caucuses on his side
MAQUOKETA, Iowa (AP) — Claiming the momentum is on his side, Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards said Saturday he would "shock the world" in Iowa's leadoff caucuses.
"I've been getting ready for this fight my whole life," Edwards said as he held a series of rallies across the state. "You have got to give me a shot at George W. Bush. If you give me a shot at George W. Bush, I'll give you the White House."
Polls show a statistical dead heat among four candidates: Howard Dean, John Kerry, Dick Gephardt and Edwards, who had been trailing for weeks. Edwards, declining to predict victory, told The Associated Press, "It just seems like we're doing pretty well at the right time."
"We are on fire," said Roxanne Conlin, a Des Moines lawyer who's the honorary chairwoman of Edwards' Iowa campaign.
Campaign officials said that Edwards has been able to overturn perceptions in recent days, painting himself as the outsider candidate after Dean picked up endorsements from establishment Democrats such as former Vice President Al Gore and Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin.
Edwards has stressed his role as an outsider in speeches at schools, cafes, veterans halls and libraries. He mentions he was elected to the Senate from North Carolina only in 1998, having spent years working as a trial lawyer for plaintiffs suing large corporations.
"Some people think that 'real-world experience' is worth something," Edwards told a rally in Maquoketa. "Do you think that someone who has been in Washington their whole life is going to come in and change things?"
Referring to his modest roots in his birthplace of South Carolina, Edwards said he has always defied expectations.
"We've been organizing for this all year, and on Monday we're going to shock the world," Edwards told supporters at a Des Moines rally, one of a series he was staging around the state.
The campaign owed its surge, Edwards said, to an upbeat message and his refusal to attack other candidates.
"People are not looking for the politics of cynicism, they're looking for the politics of hope," he said. "It's time for the people of Iowa to choose a president and they want to choose someone they can feel good about." |
