RALEIGH, N.C. - With less than three months before Democrats start choosing their presidential candidate, there is a sharp contrast between how Sen. John Edwards and pundits see his campaign prospects.

Edwards, D-N.C.,is fighting a perception among the national news media, party insiders and Democratic donors that he has virtually no shot.

"He is in a dangerous place," said Mark Halperin, the political director of ABC News. "More people than is safe for him have written him off."

In recent weeks, Washington opinion-makers have called Edwards' fund-raising drop-off the sign of a sputtering campaign. A Newsweek magazine story about major candidates' tax plans didn't even mention him. Panelists on the TV show "The McLaughlin Group" chose Edwards as the Democrat most likely to leave the race next.

During an appearance Sunday on ABC's "This Week," Edwards dodged a question about whether he'd drop out of the race if he didn't win South Carolina's first-in-the-South primary next February.

"I will win the South Carolina primary," said Edwards, who was born in the state. "I will be the Democratic nominee for president."

Edwards said his campaign is faring well with voters in Iowa and New Hampshire and holds a large lead in South Carolina. Edwards has leads of up to 10 points in some South Carolina surveys.

"I actually feel very good about the way this campaign is moving," Edwards said. "And actually, more importantly, I see what's happening on the ground. We've now really reached the intense part of this campaign, where caucus-goers and voters are really paying attention."

A poll released Sunday showed Edwards third among likely voters in New Hampshire. He trailed, by a large margin, rivals from neighboring states - former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry.

Edwards has been running fourth in Iowa, well behind Rep. Richard Gephardt of neighboring Missouri and Dean, and a few points behind Kerry.

If Edwards still has a shot at his party's presidential nomination, his hope rests with people like Andra Atteberry, a 60-year-old housewife in the heart of Iowa's hog country.

Atteberry last week sat a few feet from the North Carolina senator while he talked, before a rapt living room of Democratic activists in Manchester, Iowa, about empowering the middle class.

Atteberry arrived inclined to support one of Edwards' rivals. She left feeling a connection with the senator, with whom she shared the distinction of being the first in the family to go to college.

"People who go to caucuses don't pay that much attention to the polls," Atteberry said. "They want to hear directly what the candidates have to say."

Edwards is feeling buoyed by places such as Cedar Falls, Iowa. More than 150 college students, senior citizens and others packed a bookstore there on a weekday morning to see Edwards. Dozens lingered to shake hands, get autographs and have pictures taken.

He met enthusiastic crowds in New Hampshire earlier in the week and was heartily received Saturday by the teachers union in South Carolina. The 12,000-member South Carolina Education Association endorsed Edwards Saturday.