Edwards announces run for presidency

WASHINGTON -- Former senator John Edwards formally announced his candidacy for president yesterday, further crowding an early Democratic field for the nomination and putting added pressure on his former running mate, Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, to decide whether he will make a second bid for president.

Speaking in New Orleans to showcase the problems still facing the city ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, a blue jeans-clad Edwards called for greater volunteer participation by the public and new leadership from the government -- starting with an immediate, gradual pull out from Iraq.

"We need to make it clear that we intend to leave Iraq and turn over the responsibility of Iraq to the Iraqi people," said Edwards, 53, a former North Carolina senator. "The best way to make that clear is to actually start leaving," he said, beginning with the removal of 40,000 to 50,000 troops. Edwards rejected the idea of a "surge" of extra troops to stabilize Iraq, a plan under consideration by the Bush administration.

The 2004 Democratic vice presidential nominee repeated his regret over having voted to authorize the war in Iraq in 2002 but said the Bush administration -- including Vice President Dick Cheney and former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld -- were to blame for the way the Iraq war has played out over the last three and a half years.

"It's important to note, for anybody who voted for the war, that we didn't conduct the war," Edwards said. "Bush, Cheney, those people -- Rumsfeld, they conducted the war. And they have been an absolute disaster in the conducting of the war."

Edwards' entry into the race as the third candidate for the Democratic nomination puts pressure on Kerry to make his decision, since the two former colleagues and running mates will be competing for a finite pool of money and support, analysts said. Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack and Ohio Representative Dennis Kucinich have already announced their candidacies for the Democratic nomination, and observers believe early front-runners Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Senator Barack Obama of Illinois may not be far behind. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and Democratic Senators Christopher Dodd of Connecticut and Joseph Biden of Delaware have also broadcast their interest in the race.

"It's one more indication that if Kerry's going to get in, he needs to get in fairly quickly," said Merle Black , a political science professor and campaign specialist at Emory University in Atlanta. "He's going to have trouble raising money and getting staff."

Kerry spokesman David Wade said the senator would announce his intentions after New Year's Day but felt no need to rush his decision.

"Senator Kerry, having run before, has a national network of donors, supporters, and operatives, which have hung together these last two years . . . [He] is certainly in a position to wait until January to make a decision," Wade said, quickly adding that the announcement would not necessarily come in January.

"His decision will have absolutely nothing to do with other candidates." Wade said.

Kerry has campaigned assiduously for key Democrats in state and local races since he lost the presidency in 2004 and has given out and raised $14 million for Democratic contenders across the country, seeking to build loyalties that could be critical in a crowded Democratic primary. But Kerry is still haunted by his loss in 2004, a race many Democrats feel was his to lose.

"Kerry would be upstaged by Edwards now, I think. There's no discernible support for a second Kerry effort," Black said.

Edwards is doing well in early polls in Iowa, but Kerry supporters say the Massachusetts senator has a natural regional advantage in the first-primary state of New Hampshire, which Kerry won in 2004. Either man could position himself to be the candidate-in-waiting, should Democratic voters decide that Clinton is unelectable and Obama too inexperienced for the job, said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

"The difficulty Kerry has is that people now have other places to go, and they're going there," said Peter Fenn , a Democratic consultant. But Kerry, more than any other candidate, can afford to wait longer to announce because of his 2004 experience, Fenn said.

The 2008 race has attracted numerous presidential hopefuls but is already narrowing; some candidates have pulled out of the race even earlier than candidates used to announce their intentions to run in earlier presidential contests.

Former president Bill Clinton did not start campaigning in earnest in New Hampshire until late 1991, just a few months ahead of the 1992 primary, but would-be 2008 contenders have already started visiting the Granite State and assessing support.

Senator Clinton, the former president's wife, is expected in New Hampshire in February, a state party official said.

"I think that folks who are serious about this will probably want a year before the primary to build their organizations and to be working hard in New Hampshire," said Paul Hodes , a Democrat who will officially become one of his state's two congressmen when he takes the oath of office next week.

"They are honing their messages and figuring out what is or is not resonating."

Senator Evan Bayh , an Indiana Democrat who recently withdrew from the 2008 race, was approached about running for president soon after Kerry lost in 2004, Bayh's former spokesman, Dan Pfeiffer said.

In earlier election cycles, Bayh might have waited to gauge support for a presidential run, but this year, he had to start early because of the immense pressure to raise campaign cash, Pfeiffer said.

"You have to start raising money, hiring staff, and courting activists almost two years ahead of the first primary," Pfeiffer said.

"They're forced to get in [the race] before they can make any rational analysis" of whether they can win, he said.