John Edwards

To believe his campaign, John Edwards is not the man he was in 2004. A losing vice-presidential candidate in that election, he is faced with the problem that confronts all unsuccessful candidates: how to retain and build on the support he gained last time around while not succumbing to the same defeat.

So the message this time in the campaign to sell Edwards as a presidential candidate is clear. This is a new, improved John Edwards - sunny but stern, youthful but experienced, boyish but manly.

"I, like all of you, have evolved," the 53-year-old told an early campaign rally in New Hampshire. Just how he has evolved will be tested as the campaign unfolds.

Edwards is no longer the political ingénue, the unknown riding into town to break the political mould. That distinction has been ceded to others, so from emphasising his lack of experience as a bonus, the Edwards campaign now looks to draw on his record as a former member of the Senate. Instead of the moderate, young, southern Democrat who won election to the US upper house in 1998 and stood alongside John Kerry in 2004, Edwards is now presenting himself as a champion of the social issues beloved of the Democrat base: poverty, healthcare and workers rights.

While there is no reason to doubt his conviction, these are areas that have been assumed to be the province of his leading competitors. A move to establish his liberal credentials shows a toughness that some consider to have been absent in the 2004 model.

His mettle was tested twice early in the campaign. Two bloggers employed by his campaign came in for criticism for writing postings on their own sites that were deemed to be anti-Catholic. Shortly after both had resigned from the campaign team, the conservative commentator Anne Coulter described Edwards as a "faggot", igniting a short-lived controversy. The candidate weathered both storms with some dignity.

Edwards was quick to stake out his territory in the 2008 campaign, delivering policy specifics ahead of his competitors. The backbone of his campaign has been bolstered by his work since leaving the Senate in 2005 as director of the Centre on Poverty, Work and Opportunity. He has outlined a plan for universal healthcare that could cost as much as $120bn (£60.7bn). To fund his plan, he proposes rolling back the Bush tax cuts to those earning more than $200,000 a year. When it is pointed out to him that rolling back a tax cut is the equivalent of raising taxes - a strategy eschewed in presidential elections since the final days of Walter Mondale - Edwards does not flinch.

"Our healthcare system is dysfunctional, and it's time for us to stop taking baby steps about big issues like this and do what needs to be done," he told an interviewer in February.

In the same interview he framed his call for action on healthcare, poverty and workers' rights as the moral duty of Americans. "I see poverty as a huge moral issue, [an] issue of character for America," Edwards said. He went on to articulate the five policy areas that he hopes will define his campaign: health, energy, climate change, economic inequality and international relations.

In contrast to 2004, when he often seemed unfamiliar with the intricacies of international relations, this time around Edwards is better prepared. He has travelled abroad, meeting Tony Blair and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and he is well versed in the more intractable problems facing US diplomats, such as relations with North Korea, Iran and Syria.

But it is on the war with Iraq that he hopes to put the most distance between himself and the other leading Democrat challengers. Edwards began a 2005 op-ed piece for the Washington Post with the words: "I was wrong". What in 2004 might have been termed a "flip-flop" is now seen as a necessary manoeuvre for any credible Democratic candidate. Unlike Hillary Clinton, Edwards admits he was wrong to support a 2002 resolution authorising the invasion of Iraq and advocates an immediate withdrawal of up to 50,000 US troops and a complete pull-out within 18 months. He argues that there is no foreseeable military resolution, and that the answer lies in a US engagement with Iran and Syria and the encouragement of reconciliation between Sunnis and Shias.

A Methodist, Edwards has moved to cloak his policies in the language of faith and morality. Asked in an interview with a multi-faith religious website which parts of American life he thought would most outrage Jesus, Edwards responded: "Our selfishness. Our resort to war when it's not necessary. I think that Jesus would be disappointed in our ignoring the plight of those around us who are suffering and our focus on our own selfish short-term needs."

Before entering politics, Edwards was a successful personal injury lawyer, winning several landmark cases in North Carolina and becoming a millionaire in the process. His current situation is far from his humble beginnings as a mill worker's son in South Carolina, where he was born on June 10, 1953. Married to Elizabeth since 1977, the Edwards family recently bought an expansive $6m mansion in North Carolina, a move that has drawn the scorn of critics who accuse him of preaching about the poverty gap while indulging in a lavish lifestyle.

His family has also endured hardship. The couple's 16-year-old son, Wade, died in a car crash in 1996, and the day after he and John Kerry conceded defeat in the 2004 election, Edwards's wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. When the cancer returned in March, the Edwards campaign seemed set to be abandoned. The couple, however, turned adversity to advantage, insisting that the political would come before the personal.

The setbacks have not deterred Edwards, and it may be that the experience of enduring family hardships and losing an election has emboldened him. It is said that he finally fell out with his 2004 running mate when Kerry conceded Ohio. Edwards was said to be adamant that they should dispute the result. Perhaps that sense of grievance, more than any of the grander injustices that feature prominently in his campaign, is what really drives his candidacy.

Life and times


Born: June 10 1953 in Seneca Falls, South Carolina

Family: Married to Elizabeth, with children Wade (died in 1996), Cate, Emma Claire and Jack

Education: Graduated from North Carolina State University in 1974 with a degree in textile technology, and a law degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1977

Career: Edwards made millions as a personal injury trial lawyer before entering politics. Following the death of a son, he ran for and was elected to the Senate. He served until 2004, when he was the Democratic vice-presidential nominee

Religion: Methodist

Campaign manager: David Bonior

Media advisor: Joe Trippi

Pollster: Harrison Hickman

Chief fundraiser: Jennifer Swanson

Communications: Jonathan Prince, David Ginsberg

Website:
johnedwards.com


MySpace:
myspace.com/johnedwards