AP: Edwards More Passionate This Time
According to this AP story today:
"I am exactly the same person driven by exactly the same things," Edwards said in an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press. But he pointed to at least one difference. "There is a depth and a seasoning that makes me stronger and more passionate," he said. "It means I am enjoying myself."
Edwards noted that most surveys showed him trailing badly only a few weeks before the caucuses in the last election cycle, and he predicted the same kind of big movement in the closing weeks this time.
"I don't think anyone thinks this is a two-person race," said Edwards, who is in a tight contest in Iowa with Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama. "All you have to do is listen to caucus-goers at town hall meetings and it's obvious they think it is a three-person race and it's basically a dead heat between the three of us."
Edwards said he's learned from his previous campaign and "the key for me in the last month is the lesson of 2004. I've talked about what's wrong with Washington and now the key for me is to drive my positive vision for how we're going to fix it."
Edwards said his experience will show in the closing weeks.
"I think that what's true is I'm more sure-footed because of having been through this before," said Edwards. "I have a great deal of confidence both as a candidate and what I would do as president."
Edwards said that one lesson to be learned by Obama and Clinton is the quick falls of Richard Gephardt and Howard Dean, who led in the polls heading into the caucuses in 2004 but got into a vicious exchange toward the end.