DES MOINES, Iowa — For the final days in the Iowa contest, John Edwards has shed his blue jeans and open-collar shirt and put on a suit and tie — and a pair of brass knuckles.
Often the forgotten man in Iowa’s three-way Democratic battle, Edwards is on the move. Independent analysts see his support firming up. Advisers to both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama believe he might win the caucuses Thursday — though their views should be discounted somewhat because both would rather see Edwards win if they don’t.
Four years ago, Edwards closed out Iowa in a rush. Had the campaign lasted a few more days, he might have won, and his second-place finish was almost as surprising as John Kerry’s victory.
Edwards knows that he cannot afford to lose Thursday night. But it is his message that is most remarkable. No thought here of finishing on a sunny and positive note, as he did four years ago. His “America Rising” theme is not a variation of “Morning in America.” It is a call to arms that is raw and angry, populist and pugnacious. It is a message that is as exhausting as it is confrontational. It is a message that makes Al Gore’s “people versus the powerful” seem timid by comparison.
One Edwards supporter, departing after a big rally in Des Moines on Saturday night, said he hasn’t heard a message as passionate or strong since Bobby Kennedy’s 1968 presidential campaign.
Nice clothes aside, Edwards has turned street fighter for the final stretch. His message can be boiled down to a single word — “Fight!” — which he repeats over and over and over and over again: “Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!”
Edwards has rolled out anecdotes he has never used to make it more personal. He was, as he now explains, a brawler as a kid, taking on bullies the way he later took on corporations and insurance companies as a trial lawyer.
The enemy he sees is corporate America and corporate greed. His message seeks not to unite the country but to finish what he describes as “an epic struggle” against forces that are killing America — destroying jobs, holding down wages, putting people out of work and denying them medical care.
“You need somebody in the arena who will never back down,” he says.
His rivals scoff at the angry populism. They believe it is an invention, saying that what Edwards now talks about bears little resemblance to the record he compiled in the Senate.
None of this bothers Edwards. He knows what the critics say, but he couldn’t care less. He believes he is connecting with the anger and unrest that many Americans feel about the state of the country and especially the way Washington works. He promises not to fix the system, but to blow it up.
That message is strong brew and not for everyone, but it has found a following. Edwards is counting on enough Iowans — those in small towns and rural areas especially — to buy into it to put him over the top on caucus night.
