« Previous Entry | Main | Next Entry »

Posted: January 7, 2008 8:17 PM
Edwards Dubs Self 'Underdog', Spars with Clinton Camp
Email This

The polite politics of the Iowa caucuses may now be but a memory — the three Democratic front-runners have set a contentious tone headed into Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary, all scrambling to be the best candidate for change, which has become the unspecific post-caucus watchword of the campaigns.

During Saturday night’s Facebook/ABC News/WMUR night’s, former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, who has run a campaign focused on middle-class issues, aligned himself with caucus-winner Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., as someone who could act as a change agent for the nation. But New York Sen. Hillary Clinton suggested they were “raising the false hopes” of Americans by promising change they were unprepared to deliver, the Boston Globe reported.

“I didn’t hear these kinds of attacks from Senator Clinton when she was ahead,” Edwards said, according to the Washington Post. “Every time [Obama] speaks out for change, every time I fight for change, the forces of status quo are going to attack — every single time.”

Edwards also lashed out against Clinton’s campaign, saying that it “doesn’t seem to have a conscience” after her spokesman made a crack about an emotional campaign event during which Edwards was joined by three families who suffered medical tragedies.

Edwards was responding to an e-mail comment made by Jay Carson, Clinton’s spokesman, who suggested that “the references in Senator Clinton’s speeches are about people she has actually helped and changes she has actually made, not stories she’s pulled from the newspaper and included in her stump,” the New York Times reported.

Edwards also launched a new TV ad in Hew Hampshire entitled “Underdog,” in which he again aligns himself the “underdog” middle class by battling two opponents who have raised $200 million.

During his second marathon bus voyage of the week, Edwards momentarily forgot that the caucuses were behind him. The Edwards bus is scheduled to cruise through Littleton, Claremont, Lakeport, Bedford, Hampton, Dover, Somersworth, Rochester and Durham before New Hampshire voters head to the polls.

In the past month, Edwards’ numbers in New Hampshire have inched upward, but they are still a distant third behind Obama and Clinton.

Despite those numbers, Edwards vowed to George Stephanopoulos that he would continue to campaign after the vote in New Hampshire.

“I am in this through the convention and to the White House,” Edwards replied twice to Stephanopoulos’ questions.