John Edwards Thunderdome: Beyond Iowa

While the rule about the Iowa caucus is not strictly "two men enter, one man leaves," it is a very important event in the presidential primary timeline. John Edwards has acknowledged the importance of Iowa by spending a great deal of time there since 2004. The DVDs explaining his health care plan that were sent to 70,000 Iowans only reinforce the idea that not only does he consider Iowa to be important, he also thinks he can win there.

About a year ago, we were having a meeting for one Democratic organization or another and someone had brought in an issue of TIME with a story about John Edwards in it. The basic premise of the story was that Edwards had more or less been living there since the last election and had already built a statewide organization for his campaign. That has proven true for Iowa as well as other states, and that organization has done a remarkable thing for the Edwards candidacy -- he is considered a top-tier candidate for his party's nomination.

John Edwards is good at politics. It is obvious in the fact that, despite less flashiness and celebrity (and likely, less money), he hasn't been dwarfed by Clinton or Obama. He is considered to be of their ilk, and as Clinton and Obama continue to take swings at each other, Edwards talks about his plans and his ideas and ends up controlling the agenda on every issue of the Democratic nomination race so far.

The big ones have been the Iraq War and health care, and because of the competency of his campaign, Edwards has forced the other candidates to respond to his ideas and discuss their platforms in comparison to his. In the case of universal health care, his proposal started a national conversation which, upon examining recent polls, comes out in his favor -- Americans support universal health care, and they don't so much mind taxing the rich to pay for it.

Since Clinton and Obama have spent the rest of their time defending against one another, their policy initiatives, if any, have gotten muddled. They won't both be able to stay in the #1 and #2 spots for long if they continue to be forced into constant response mode. Edwards' campaign is a sort of people-powered, issues-heavy mini-juggernaut that continues to carve out space for itself by way of simple organization and good politics.