Edwards makes his case to N.H. voters

Democratic Presidential hopeful, former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., waves to a crowd as his daughter Cate, left, looks on during a campaign stop in Manchester, N.H., early Friday, Jan. 4, 2008. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

MANCHESTER, N.H.—Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards implored New Hampshire voters Friday to repudiate the Iowa caucus results and vote for a candidate "who will fight for the middle class" against corporate interests that he accuses of moving jobs overseas and making health care expensive.

Edwards, who narrowly edged out Hillary Rodham Clinton for second place behind winner Barack Obama in Iowa, said New Hampshire voters "now have two choices," implying Clinton is out of the running. Without naming his rivals, Edwards suggested he would wage a populist agenda more energetically than would Obama as he addressed about 300 campaign workers and supporters at a dawn rally in Manchester.

Edwards and his advisers saw Iowa's results as a clear call for political change in America after two terms under President Bush. Their goal is to focus the choice between Edwards and Obama, and then portray Obama as too tepid and conciliatory.

The key question, he said here, is "are we willing to fight the corporate greed that has an iron-fisted grip on our democracy?"

New Hampshire's primary on Tuesday is crucial to Edwards' and Clinton's hopes of slowing Obama's momentum. Edwards' challenge is especially tough because he has less money than the other two.

The former North Carolina senator tried to negate that disadvantage Friday. "We're not going to have an auction," he said, "we're going to have an election in four days."

Saying he had faced two well-funded "celebrity candidates" in Iowa, Edwards said he is not the candidate of money, glitz or glamor, but instead "the people's candidate."

"I am the candidate who will fight with every fiber of my being, every single step of the way, for you, for your children and for your grandchildren," he said to cheers from an audience that included more campaign workers than ordinary voters, and many non-New Hampshire residents.

If Edwards plans to sharpen his attacks on Obama this weekend, he did not do so in Manchester, sticking instead to populist themes he has stressed for weeks.

He did, however, embrace a new metaphor suggested by his wife, Elizabeth.

"We are Seabiscuit," Edwards said, referring to the famous race horse that beat the odds.