Analysis: Edwards, McCain positioned to shake up race

[DeepModem Mom]

CNN: Analysis: Edwards, McCain positioned to shake up race
By Bill Schneider
CNN Senior Political Analyst


Former Sen. John Edwards is in a three-way tie with Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in Iowa.

DES MOINES, Iowa (CNN) -- In the race for the White House, each party has one candidate who might shake things up. On the Democratic side, it's former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina. In the Republican contest, it's Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

In the battle for the Democratic nomination, Sens. Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois have been getting most of the attention. They're the national front-runners, and most of the charges and countercharges have been between them. But in Iowa, the first state to vote, it's a three-way race between Clinton, Obama and Edwards.

Edwards, who came in second in Iowa in 2004, is betting heavily on the Hawkeye State in 2008. "John Edwards, we have to remember, never really left after the 2004 caucus cycle. He had a good strong organization here in Iowa," said Dennis Goldford, a political science professor at Drake University in Des Moines.

After some initial missteps -- such as his $400 haircut -- Edwards has adopted a strong populist message he calls "America Rising." He says he has the life experience to lead a middle-class uprising against special interests. "I have fought for jobs for the middle class and health care. I've fought for the kind of working people in the middle class that I grew up with," Edwards said recently.

If he wins the January 3 Iowa caucus or comes in second, suddenly Edwards, instead of Obama, would become the Clinton alternative....

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/12/27/wild.cards/index.html

[Tejanocrat]

1. McCain is -- by far -- their most formidable candidate; it concerns me to see him rise.

[Jackpine Radical]

2. Edwards' campaign is becoming quite fascinating.

Here is a guy who has been through the wringer in 2004, and no doubt has a totally realistic picture of what he faces, particularly with an implacably hostile M$M, wholly owned by his enemies, out there with the assigned mission of destroying his campaign.

Edwards has a track record of winning, or at least not repeatedly tilting at windmills. In 2004 he didn't get the nomination, and then he didn't get the Vice Presidency. But in the course of that campaign, he got a very close look at how the system works, with all its corruption and bias. He would not now be in the game if he hadn't at least convinced himself that he had analyzed the game and figured out a strategy that gives him at least a reasonable chance at the gold ring. This is all the more true given Elizabeth's health status. Surely he would not waste so much of what time they have remaining together in a quest they see as Quixotic.

All of this suggests to me that he has a game plan, and he thinks it's good enough to be worth playing out, even at considerable cost to him. I have absolutely no insider knowledge nor any pretense to special insight. Nevertheless, I strongly suspect that this will be a campaign worth watching. We can only wait to see what unfolds.

[Hieronymus]

3. I heard a discussion yesterday, on radio, that Edwards was

adamant in 2004 that Kerry challenge the vote count in Ohio, but Kerry chose not to.