Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards unleashed a blistering attack Tuesday on President Bush, saying he lacks compassion for ordinary citizens and is too arrogant to seek international help in war-torn Iraq.

During a town-hall meeting at the USC School of Law, the Seneca native also said Bush's economic policies built around tax cuts are bankrupting the country.

"I thought when President Bush's father was president, things couldn't get much worse; this fellow is making his father look pretty good," Edwards, 50, told a standing-room-only crowd of 200, mostly law school students, jammed into a lecture room.

South Carolina's first-in-the-South presidential primary is scheduled for Feb. 3. Democratic hopefuls have been visiting the state on a weekly basis.

Edwards, a U.S. senator from North Carolina, spoke for about 20 minutes and then fielded questions from the audience for nearly an hour.

"This president does not come from the same place that most of us come from, and as a result, he does not view the things the way most of us do," Edwards said. "If I were to describe what I think is the fundamental difference between George Bush and most of us, it's really pretty simple.

"What he honors and respects is really one thing, and one thing only -- wealth."

State Republican Chairman Katon Dawson said Edwards does not tell his audiences his plan for creating jobs calls for a tax increase.

"Call me crazy, but I don't think taking several hundred dollars out of the wallets of hard-working moms and dads is the best way to get our economy growing," Dawson said.

Edwards delivered his basic stump speech with a few new twists. He repeatedly attacked Bush's trade policies, blaming them for the loss of 3 million U.S. jobs. He mentioned South Carolina's 7 percent jobless rate, the highest in nine years, and laid the blame squarely at Bush's feet.

"It's devastating, and this president is not going to do anything about it," Edwards said.

The loss of jobs in South Carolina and closing of textile plants due to rising foreign competition are starting to cause voters to question Bush's economic policies, a development that could portend trouble for the president even in a Republican-leaning state like South Carolina.

Edwards ridiculed a recent White House statement characterizing the current situation as a "jobless economic recovery."

"I don't know where the president grew up, but where I come from, there is no such thing as an economic recovery without jobs," he said. "The best way for us to have real economic recovery is to make sure George Bush gets another job in 2004."

On trade, Edwards said, he would seek to kill the provisions in the law that give tax breaks to industries that uproot and move overseas, taking American jobs with them.

On Iraq, Edwards said the United States should be reaching out to allies to help restore peace in that war-torn country.

"We've got a bunch of young men and women in an extremely dangerous situation right now," he said. "But this president arrogantly refuses to bring anybody else in. ‘.‘.‘. This should be an international effort, not just an American effort."

Edwards might have won a few converts in his audience.

Rhys Hester, a 24-year-old law student from Travelers Rest, said he always has voted Republican, but this time he might support Edwards.

"I didn't come in with a lot of hope," said Tolly Honeycutt, a 52-year-old hotel clerk from Columbia. "But he just might be the right man."