In Iowa, Edwards Counts the Reasons to Be Upbeat
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
DES MOINES, Jan. 19 — He came in second, but it may as well have been first.
John Edwards bounded into a hotel ballroom, charging down an elevated runway and crouching to slap every hand he could with a grin.
"I came here a year ago with a belief we could change the country," Senator Edwards said, his voice hoarse from days of relentless campaigning, "with a belief in the possibility, with a belief the politics of hope could overcome the politics of cynicism. The people of Iowa confirmed their belief in this positive, uplifting vision of America."
Barely 10 minutes later, after an abbreviated stump speech and a confetti drop, Mr. Edwards worked his way through the crowd toward a plane waiting to whisk him to New Hampshire.
A couple of hours earlier, in his suite at the Savery Hotel here, Mr. Edwards sat with his wife, Elizabeth, at his side and spoke with reporters eager to know how he would use his strong showing in the Iowa caucuses in the races ahead.
The North Carolina senator seemed to serve notice on Gen. Wesley K. Clark, a native of Arkansas who is enjoying his own surge in New Hampshire, that he would challenge him in his home region of the South.
"I grew up in the South," Mr. Edwards said. "I grew up in the rural South, I was elected in a tough Southern state and have spent my time in the Senate dealing every single day with the problems of a Southern state, with job loss, with the rural economy, all of the problems that affect people in Southern states."
"General Clark," he added, "comes from a different place."
Asked whether he and General Clark were headed for a showdown in Southern primaries, Mr. Edwards responded, "If I'm not mistaken, he has never had a vote cast for him."
At another point, he took on both General Clark and Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut for skipping Iowa to focus on New Hampshire.
"General Clark and Joe Lieberman decided they couldn't compete here," Mr. Edwards said. "Remember when they withdrew from here they were both at about the same place I was. I didn't walk away. I stayed here and fought."
But much of the evening was devoted to celebration. Mr. Edwards ate fast-food as he watched the results come in on television.
For months, Mr. Edwards had been far behind in the polls, and even before the results were known, his campaign was proclaiming the caucuses a victory of sorts. His 11th-hour surge and an endorsement by the state's largest newspaper, The Des Moines Register, surprised even Mr. Edwards and drew fresh attention to a candidate often given short shrift by his competitors.
With Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor, and other top contenders attacking one another on the stump and in television commercials, Mr. Edwards, a first-term senator, stressed the positive, warning last month in a speech in San Francisco, "If all we are in 2004 is a party of anger, we can't win."
As the campaign here turned harsher, he stayed above the fray. The positive tone drew voters who said they were fed up with the vitriol and helped win The Register endorsement, which gave his campaign a lift when it needed it most. The resulting surge raised the morale of staff members and, his aides anticipate, will loosen the wallets of contributors to a campaign that is at a serious financial disadvantage to Dr. Dean, Mr. Kerry and General Clark.
"No matter the outcome of the voting tonight in Iowa, my campaign is a winner, and we have come this distance because of your support," Mr. Edwards said in an e-mail message to supporters asking them to contribute again or, if they have reached the $2,000 donation limit, to ask friends and family members to give. "We need to keep that momentum going as I head into New Hampshire and South Carolina."
Mr. Edwards, who had issued a plea for contributions in the final hours before the caucuses, said his surge had already helped boost his coffers in the past few days.
"Whereas a month ago I would make calls — people were nice and friendly and some people would raise money — now they call us back multiple times," he said. "They're excited about being on board. It's a different response."
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company |
