By ROB CHRISTENSEN, Staff Writer
John Edwards called his mother in early 1997 and asked whether she was sitting down.
"I've decided to run for the Senate," Edwards said.
"That's great," Bobbie Edwards recalls replying. "So you are going to run for the state Senate?"
"Oh no, Mama," Edwards said. "The U.S. Senate."
Two years later, Edwards was on the Senate floor trying to save a president from being removed from office. Three years later, he just missed landing on the national Democratic ticket as his party's vice-presidential candidate. And only four years after the conversation with his mother, he was running for president.
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"There was reasonable and good argument that for me, selfishly, it might have made more sense to wait for a different time," Edwards said. "That kind of calculation is not the way I make decisions about what I'm going to do. I was convinced that if we're going to change the course of the nation, I could make the best case against Bush."
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Edwards appears to genuinely enjoy the give-and-take with voters that he encounters on downtown streets, where he'll shed his suit and tie for a casual blue shirt and chinos. He touches shoulders, jokes about his accent and smiles without hesitation.
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"I think John knows in himself that he is the best candidate for president of the United States," said Roger Smith, a former law partner. "I think he believes that much in himself -- that he could do a better job than anybody around. I don't know that I want to use these words, but, viewed negatively, it's incredible arrogance. But it seems to me that anybody who wants to run for president is incredibly arrogant. John believes that much in himself."
http://www.newsobserver.com/edwards/profile/story/2867314p-2644360c.html*****
Long, detailed, very compelling article about Edwards' rise in politics. Excellent read.