Edwards’ Iowa Pitch Appeals to Everyman

DAVENPORT, Iowa —  Sales pitches usually come with a hook, and Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards baits his near the end of a 20-minute stump speech.

As the teenage son of a mill worker, Edwards says, people scoffed when he told them he dreamed of becoming a lawyer. He faced similar skepticism, he adds, when he entered courtrooms to take on corporate attorneys, and again when he ran for the Senate five years ago.

Then the pitchman moves in to close the sale.

“Everybody in this room can relate to this,” Edwards says in his South Carolina drawl, bringing his hands together in front of his chest. “Just think to yourself: How many times in your life has somebody said to you, ‘You can’t do this.’ Right? We’ve all been there.... The truth of the matter is, I can’t do this by myself. But you and I, we can do this together.”

It’s hard to envision a millionaire lawyer and U.S. senator as the underdog voice of the common man, but for the last few months Edwards has painted himself as just that in scores of living rooms, diners, American Legion posts and, on Sunday, a YMCA in this blue-collar city on the banks of the Mississippi River.

Where rival Howard Dean capitalized on the angst of voters opposed to the war in Iraq, Edwards has sought to tap other concerns -- financial insecurity, college educations expensively out of reach and a government many perceive is run by special interests.

Where Dean gives voice to anger, Edwards has given voice to optimism, cajoling voters to join him in what he now refers to as a movement -- an assertion of democratic rights by a part of America he says has been marginalized by its own government.

According to polls, it’s been a resonant theme among a growing number of Iowa Democrats, one that Edwards hopes will not only serve him well in today’s caucuses, but propel him to the White House.

“His background is very similar to mine,” said Michael Ward, a 54-year-old Teamster who was part of an audience of 450 people who waited an hour to hear Edwards speak at the Waterloo Performing Arts Center on Saturday night. “We were both the first in our families to be college graduates, and our parents were workers and farmers.... There’s something about this guy. He has a charisma.”

During the last two weeks, Edwards has made the vital transition from political curiosity to political celebrity in Iowa. Scheduling six or seven events a day, it now often takes him almost as much time to leave a room as it does to give his speech, each exit a receiving line of autographs and pictures, quick chats and well-wishes.

The crowds are a marker of unexpected success, Edwards said Sunday as he flew on a chartered Gulfstream II from Des Moines to Davenport. “It’s been a real surprise,” he said. “I think people are responding to our positive message of hope.”

Even his aides say they have been taken aback by the response to Edwards and what had long been his campaign’s strategy -- take the positive road to emerge as a top contender after the smoke clears.

“It’s going according to plan, but it’s still a surprise,” said spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri. “Sometimes it feels like we’re watching somebody else’s campaign.”

On Sunday, so many people showed up for an Edwards speech at Des Moines’ Drake University that more than 150 couldn’t fit into a room with a listed capacity of 400. So Edwards took a walk through the overflow room on his way out to shake hands and sign autographs.

Some of the energy propelling the campaign has been fueled by two successive Sundays of good news in Iowa’s largest newspaper, the Des Moines Register. Last week, the paper endorsed Edwards. This Sunday, it published poll results that showed him running a close second in a race in which he was once figured as an asterisk.

Both developments may help validate the campaign for wavering voters uncertain about one of the least-known contenders going into the primary season.

For some, the decision was made long ago. Jeanne McDermott, an unemployed truck driver, decided in the summer she was backing Edwards, and Saturday night she waited nearly an hour for him to arrive at Dee’s Place in Parkerburg, Iowa.

“He just seems like the winnable one,” said McDermott. “He’s the only one who can beat Bush.”

McDermott said Edwards’ wealth did not wither his common roots. “Nothing was given.... He got his by his own gumption. He’s one of us,” she said.