Edwards Has An Early Lead in Iowa

In my opinion, the most substansive candidate in the presidential race is Edwards. He is a southern Democrat who can talk about fiscal responsibility as well as addressing poverty, disparity and greed. Why more people aren't paying attention to him is beyond me, maybe because he's not in the pocket of big media. Here is a good article from the LA Times on the candidate, who is currently ahead in the polls in Iowa.
Los Angeles Times

Surveys show Edwards ahead in Iowa, which holds the first vote and is a crucial momentum-builder for the rapid series of contests that follow.


[..]This is a harder-edged Edwards than the candidate of four years ago. The biting tone is all the more notable given the relentlessly upbeat campaign Edwards ran last time. (Some Democrats complained he was too nice to Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.)


The Republican National Committee issued a compendium of prickly quotes headlined, "Edwards turns to the dark side." When he traveled to Harlem, on Clinton's turf, to criticize congressional inaction on the war, her camp jabbed back by comparing Edwards' assault with his repeated 2004 boasts of running a clean campaign.


But Edwards insisted his approach remained "very positive, very ideas-driven." That said, he added: "I do think it's important the candidates tell the truth, and sometimes people react to the truth."


Edwards, 53, has never really stopped running for president. Just four months after the last election, he was back on the Sunday talk-show circuit, distancing himself from former running mate Sen. John F. Kerry. (People familiar with their relationship say the senator from Massachusetts feels betrayed. "I have a lot of admiration for him," Edwards said tersely when asked about Kerry in an interview. "I like him very much.")


Stepping down after a single Senate term, Edwards returned to North Carolina and formed an academic center to study ways of fighting poverty, the centerpiece of his 2004 bid. Some of the proposals, such as giving poor families vouchers to move to better neighborhoods and finding ways to boost savings among people of modest means, have surfaced in this presidential race.


He also traveled the world, meeting foreign leaders including Britain's Tony Blair and Germany's Angela Merkel, in an effort to pad one conspicuously thin part of his resume. Today, Edwards appears far more fluent on global affairs — questions about Iran, Iraq and North Korea yield long tutorials — than the neophyte who groped his way through foreign policy issues four years ago.


[..]Now Edwards said he was wrong — not just about Iraq, but about its political import. When the war failed to come up, he implored Iowa audiences to ask his position, then called for withdrawing 40,000 to 50,000 U.S. troops, followed by a complete pullout within 18 months. At each stop, this drew the biggest cheers.


The war is not the only issue on which Edwards has moved left.


In the Senate, he lamented Democrats' big-spending ways and called for greater fiscal prudence. But now he minimizes the importance of deficit reduction and proposes a universal healthcare plan that would cost up to $120 billion a year. The plan would be financed by rolling back Bush's tax cuts and targeting loopholes that aid the wealthy.


"The president of the United States will have to make choices," Edwards told a crowd at the Council Bluffs Senior Center. "I do not believe you can achieve universal healthcare, energy transformation and [do] the other things that need to be done in America or, for that matter, in other parts of the world, and eliminate the deficit."


Asked in an interview what had changed, he replied: "The fundamentals have changed. The healthcare system is worse than it's ever been. Our addiction to oil is stronger in America. The wealth gap in America has gotten worse, and those things have to be corrected."


Edwards has worked hard to build labor support, walking picket lines, campaigning door-to-door for state minimum-wage hikes and helping union recruitment drives. He has also courted the left-leaning blogosphere, becoming the first Democrat to quit a Fox News-sponsored debate, since canceled, that drew liberal ire.


In Iowa, Edwards won high marks for his specificity on immigration, Iraq, and especially healthcare. As he repeatedly noted, he is the only candidate with a full-blown plan for universal coverage; more big policy rollouts are scheduled as part of a strategy to make Edwards the most ideas-oriented candidate in the race.


Many appreciated the detail, even when they disagreed. Dale Sullivan didn't much care for Edwards' stance on illegal immigration: a border crackdown along with "earned citizenship" for those already in the country. "But at least he was honest," said the 75-year-old retired farmer, who left Ottumwa leaning toward Edwards over Obama.