Edwards plugs roots, electability in Upstate homecoming

Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards speaks to an overflow crowd at Meadors Sandwich Shop on Main Street in downtown Greenville on Wednesday. Staff/Ken Osburn e-mail this story

Fresh from the Iowa caucuses where a week-long surge propelled him into a once unlikely second-place finish, Edwards told approximately 125 people shoehorned into Meador's Sandwich Co., "I came here today to ask you to vote for me, every person you know to vote for me, to get them to the polls that day."

Edwards said when friends and acquaintance question whether he is "the guy they've been looking for, is this the guy that can beat Bush?," he said people should respond: "This is the guy that can beat George Bush every place in America: in the North, in the West, in the Midwest, in Iowa, where we just came from, and, talking like this, in the South."

The latter brought the event's loudest round of applause.

The freshman North Carolina senator was born in Seneca and spent part of his boyhood there before his family moved to Georgia. They later settled in Robbins, N.C.

To the argument that Bush is particularly strong in the South, Edwards said the answer is that "the South is not George Bush's backyard, it's my backyard."

Afterward, Edwards and an enlarged traveling press corps flew back to New Hampshire where Democrats will go to the polls on Tuesday, one week before South Carolina's first-in-the-South primary.

Iowa boost

Edwards finished behind Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry in Monday's Iowa caucuses. The one-two punch derailed former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean's presidential express, at least temporarily, with a third-place finish and knocked Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt from the race.

The Rev. Caesar Richburg, pastor of the 600-member Allen Temple AME Church, came to hear Edwards, a trip he might not have made had Gephardt, his first choice, not dropped out Tuesday after a devastating fourth-place showing in Iowa.

Richburg, along with one of his parishioners, state Sen. Ralph Anderson, has been getting the rush from the surviving campaigns, including overtures from Edwards.

A still undecided Richburg covered several possible bases, though.

"We need someone from the South, an Edwards, a Clark. Maybe a Kerry," he said. "That's what I'm thinking about now." What Richburg said he is sure of is that "a liberal Democrat won't defeat Bush."

The Iowa showing, which polls a week earlier had indicated was unlikely, boosted Edwards into the favorite's role in South Carolina, several analysts said, while Kerry's victory endangered Dean's lead in New Hampshire.

Retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark and Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman did not compete in Iowa but are campaigning in New Hampshire, South Carolina and other primary states.

Richard Riley, a former two-term governor and Clinton administration education secretary, attended Edwards' morning event as a courtesy call, not an endorsement, he said. Riley said he would wait until after the Jan. 29 debate in Greenville to decide on a candidate.

But Riley said of Edwards, "he's from here, he's a grand education supporter, so I really do like his candidacy. He's certainly a person I'm interested in."

Edwards' roots were a source of appeal for Bill Henry, 45, a Greenville fertilizer salesman and landscaper, who said, "Anybody from the Carolinas seems like a good choice to me."

Henry is the type of voter who can shake up both a Democratic primary and the general election.

He's a Republican.

"Some of his (Bush's) policies don't seem to help our economy here," Henry said, explaining his defection.

Rex Mead, 56, a business consultant from Greenville, described Edwards as "the Democratic candidate I can rally around."

In particular, Mead said, he likes Edwards because of his optimism, ability to articulate his views, and their shared roots.

Also Wednesday, any new allegiance of U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn of Columbia remained unresolved. Clyburn, one of the state's most influential black political figures, had campaigned around the state and nation with Gephardt.

But a day after Gephardt quit the race, Clyburn said in a conference call with reporters that he is "reassessing what I should do, if anything."

Clyburn said he was taking his time with the matter, but could support any of the remaining candidates.

He said that six of the seven had called him after Iowa, including Al Sharpton, the fiery New York activist. Clyburn said he had not spoken with U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich.

Dan Hoover covers politics and can be reached at 298-4883.