Edwards shares a laugh with Radisson hotel workers in Davenport, Iowa.
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There are differences in style and substance this time around. In his newer, more populist incarnation, Edwards 2.0 has hammered away not only at President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney and the special interests that he says call the shots in Washington but also at front runner Hillary Clinton. At one point, he even refused to say whether he would endorse her if she won the Democratic nomination. "I am surprised at just how angry John has become," said his former Senate colleague Chris Dodd, another presidential contender. "This is not the same John Edwards I once knew." Some of his former supporters feel the same way. Frank Best had originally signed up to lead Edwards' campaign in Louisa County, Iowa, but has since switched to Barack Obama, saying "Edwards just doesn't have the same campaign he had four years ago."
Edwards does not deny that he is a different candidate. "There's a toughness and a seasoning that comes from going through the experience," he says. "You have a responsibility to make sure that people know what the fundamental differences are." But as Edwards sees the lead he once held in Iowa slipping away, with Clinton and Obama taking turns heading up the latest polls, there are also signs that he may be coming full circle.
This week he unveiled a new, softer stump speech that talks of "America rising." As he explains, "Having laid the foundation of some differences that we have on substance, now it's my job to assure that [voters] know exactly what I want to do as President, which is what I was doing in the last three weeks last time." In other words, the moment has arrived once again. It's time to make another closing argument.