Edwards seen on party's fast track

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Just six years ago, John Edwards had no national reputation and was best known in his home state as a trial lawyer so skilled that he could deliver a gripping, 90-minute closing argument without notes.

Today, the North Carolina senator stands as a national Democratic leader, a man considered by his party's past two presidential nominees to be their running mate, a political figure with his own failed presidential campaign already behind him, even though he has yet to complete his first term in elective office.

That record, more than any political accomplishments during the past six years, leaves many analysts feeling that Edwards's star is ascending, regardless of the outcome last night as voters picked between the teams of Edwards and fellow Democrat John F. Kerry and the Republican duo of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

"I think he has some stature within the party because he was one of the better candidates in the primary races," said Thad L. Beyle, a political science professor at the University of North Carolina. "He really got people's attention, and obviously Senator Kerry's attention."

At 51, Edwards has an entire political career in front of him.

He wowed audiences in this year's primaries and caucuses with his sunny demeanor, his passionate call to reunite the "two Americas" that have emerged between the haves and have-nots, and his vow to run a positive campaign. He proved himself a prodigious fund-raiser, at one point surpassing the quarterly take of Kerry, a 20-year Senate incumbent. And Edwards's lone debate against Cheney last month showed he does not wilt in the spotlight, as he took the argument to the sitting vice president from the first question and did not relent until his closing argument.

"Edwards has the best platform manner of anybody in politics today, except for Bill Clinton," said Eric Davis, a political science professor at Middlebury College in Vermont. "He's able to communicate to people when he tells his life story. I think that connects particularly well in rural areas, where there are a lot of low-income people."

During his only term in the Senate, Edwards worked with Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts on legislation to provide a patient's bill of rights. He also gained some fame within his party when he was chosen to depose Monica Lewinsky during the impeachment proceedings against President Clinton.

Yet if there is one image that Edwards has seared into the mind of the electorate, it is his up-from-the-bootstraps life story, being the son of a millworker from Robbins, N.C. While he is a multimillionaire with expensive homes in Raleigh, the North Carolina barrier islands, and Washington's Georgetown section, the senator brands himself as the first in his family to go to college and a champion of the middle class and blue-collar workers.

Edwards has successfully reinforced the image with speeches that are laced with vivid imagery, not typical political rhetoric.

Last Friday, as he wound down his vice presidential campaign with a rally in his hometown, he differentiated his ticket from the Republicans.

"They don't hear the voice of the millworker who's lost his job and just wants to go back to work. They don't hear the voice of the mother who's in the emergency room with her child, worried sick about how she's going to be able to pay the bill. They don't hear the voice of all the young people across North Carolina who want to go to college, who ought to be able to go, but they're having trouble coming up with the tuition. They don't hear the voice of the young boy or girl who struggle to understand why they're treated differently because of the color of their skin. And they don't hear the voice of the mother who asks, 'Why did you send my son over there?' " Edwards said to applause.

"But I want all of you to know: I grew up with you. We hear your voices. We lift you up. We embrace you. We can do better in this country."

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com.