Posted on Tue, Jan. 20, 2004

[surfermaw]

Posted on Tue, Jan. 20, 2004

`No one expected this,' says jubilant Edwards in Iowa
JIM MORRILL
Staff Writer

DES MOINES - Even as he celebrated his surprise second-place showing in Monday's Iowa caucuses, a jubilant Sen. John Edwards set his eyes on next week's New Hampshire primary.

"No one expected this to happen," the N.C. Democrat told reporters in his Des Moines hotel. "It's a direct result of people responding to this positive message of hope. It will propel us going into other elections."

With 32 percent of delegates, Edwards trailed only Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts. But he ran far ahead of former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri, both of whom had led polls for most of the past year.

Monday's vote signaled a remarkable turnaround for a campaign that polls as recently as last month showed stuck at 5 percent. But Sunday a poll in the Des Moines Register showed him and Kerry surging.

"What happened in the last two weeks in this campaign is just phenomenal," he said.http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/7750596.htm?ERIGHTS=5252761231099940457charlotte::[e-mail]&KRD_RM=1ionilnpnomjhhhhhhhhhhnhok|Floyd+|Y