Subject: John Edwards Gets Happy From: MITCH FRANK/GRINNELL, IOWA [TIME reporter] Sent: Saturday, Jan. 17, 2004

Late Friday, only three days before caucus day, John Edwards was stumping all over the Hawkeye state, and he couldn’t stop his own mouth from breaking into a big ol’ smile as he scanned the overflowing crowds that had come to see him. “I just hope you’re having as much fun as I am,” said Edwards at a rally in Cedar Rapids.

Edwards is having fun because he has shot up in the polls in the past two weeks, going from a distant fourth place to, well, still fourth place but now in a statistical four- way dead-heat, just behind Howard Dean, Dick Gephardt and John Kerry. His surge in the numbers is backed up by the big audiences at his events. Two months ago, Edwards was often talking to 20 people or less in an Iowa living room. Last month the crowds were about 40 strong per event. Friday’s rally in Cedar Rapids saw well over a hundred people trying to cram into the room, overflowing into the hallways and outside.

Stops later in the day in less populous Greenfield, Creston and Winterset also drew big crowds. Edwards was fired up. One fan, Lisa Goodwin, a hotel manager in Cedar Rapids, has been to see him several times and has seen the word catch on. “Every time the crowds get bigger,” says Goodwin. She was jumping up and down with excitement, saying how good it was to see such a big crowd behind him. “He almost gives attorneys a good name.” She even skipped out on work for awhile to make the event.

What accounts for the change? A combination of people finally tuning in as the invisible primary ends and the real events begin and other voters taking a second look as Dean’s luster has faded. One woman outside the event told her husband, “I had been for Dean, but now I’m not sure.” And the negativity among the front three has probably hurt them. Edwards played up that aspect, starting off with a new intro to his stump speech, asking if people had been seeing all the negative ads on TV. He was answered with groans. “Every hour that an attack ad runs, 185 people file for bankruptcy in this country. Every hour that an attack ad runs, 190 Americans sink into poverty. Every hour that an attack ad runs, 270 Americans lose their health insurance.”

As Edwards spends his final three days stumping here, it’s obvious he’s finally gained some notice. The question remains if that can get him results on Monday. Caucus polls are notoriously unreliable because it’s hard to know how deep that support runs. But the boyish senator is having fun.

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