Back to the wall, Edwards fights on

By Tom Baxter
Southern Political Report

(1/10/07) Columbia -- It had been 24 hours since the New Hampshire polls closed when John Edwards bounded onto a stage in the gym of Deher High School here in his second South Carolina appearance of the day.

It's not likely Edwards had gotten much sleep in that period, and he had less to keep him going than the two Democrats who finished ahead of him in New Hampshire, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

But throughout this presidential campaign the former senator from North Carolina has been the most tireless candidate in either party. He launched into the standard lines of his stump speech Wednesday with a crispness that gave no hint this state's primary could be his last stand, and remained afterwards to autograph books and campaign posters.

As he did in his parting speech in New Hampshire, Edwards characterized this as a race that is just beginning.

“Less than 1 percent of the voters have now spoken, and we've had too much in America of people's voices not being heard,” he said.

But in reality, after a second-place finish in Iowa and a third-place finish in New Hampshire, Edwards has to emerge a winner in the state where he was born to have much hope of picking up enough delegates in the Feb. 5 primaries to carry on his battle.

Although he was considered the Carolina hometown favorite when he ran in 2004, Edwards surprised many observers four years ago by winning the state, even after John Kerry had won Iowa and New Hampshire and was steaming toward the Democratic nomination.

But to pull something like that off this year would require an upset well beyond anything Clinton pulled off Tuesday in New Hampshire.

Edwards spoke to about 300 here, after a rally at Clemson University earlier Wednesday which drew a similar crowd. They were supportive crowds, but nothing like the one which packed the University of South Carolina's Williams Brice Stadium last month to see Obama and Oprah Winfrey last month.

Edwards had some impressive legislative supporters on stage with him Wednesday night: Senate Minority Leader John C. Land III; Rep. Leon Howard, the Legislative Black Caucus chairman, and Rep. Bill Clyburn, a cousin of U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, who has decline to endorse any of the candidates, although his endorsement has been the most widely coveted.

“It's obvious Obama is a great candidate, and we're all proud of him. But we're looking for someone who can cure the ills of America,” said Howard, who endorsed Edwards early on in this race.

Edwards talks about the “ills of America” more pointedly than either of his rivals, inveighing against corporate greed at every stop and reminding audiences of those in America who go without health care, struggle to make ends meet and sometimes sleep on the streets after serving in this nation's armed forces.

“Ladies and gentlemen, Sen.Edwards is one of us. Life has not always been easy for him.That's why he's for change,” Clyburn told the mostly white audience.

There's no question Edwards is going to contest this state fiercely. The question is whether this year, being “one of us” will be enough.