Running on The Story Of His Life

The other notable role Edwards has played in his brief Senate career was his floor leadership, with Kennedy and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), in the battle for a patients' bill of rights. The measure passed the Senate but never emerged from conference with the House.

That effort too played to his strengths as a personal injury lawyer who had won many a fight against insurance companies and medical providers. McCain says, "He knew the issue better than I did -- every iota of it -- and he could argue it well." Kennedy has endorsed his Massachusetts colleague, John F. Kerry, for the presidential nomination, but he is generous in his praise of Edwards as "a quick study and a man with an impressive common touch."

A GOP senator who was active in opposition to that bill said, "John didn't look like a freshman out on the floor."

McCain, a veteran of the presidential campaign trail, says no one can judge "how much the voters will take into account" the brevity of Edwards's political career or the thinness of his public résumé, "or how much his opponents might exploit it." Despite his fourth- or fifth-place standing in early polls, "I can't help but believe he will be a formidable candidate," McCain says.

Still, Edwards, who has always aimed for the top, is hedging his bets this time by delaying a decision on whether to also file for a second term in the Senate in 2004, a race most of his friends think he will abandon to gamble on the presidential nomination.

Watching him campaign, it is clear how well his courtroom skills translate to the political arena. He knows his stump speech so well he can focus entirely on his audience, gazing into a single voter's eyes until his or her head is nodding in agreement, then moving on to the next one.

Television is not that kind to him. It makes him look even younger than he is, and he has not yet mastered the technique of addressing the camera as a person. An appearance last year on NBC's "Meet the Press" was enough of a disaster that Edwards parodied it in a well-received appearance before journalists and politicians at this spring's Gridiron Club dinner.

His inexperience also shows at times in campaigning, notably in the lack of the local references most candidates use to ingratiate themselves with audiences in Iowa or New Hampshire, and in the blank spaces in his knowledge of those states' histories and traditions. He has not been over this ground before.

His home state cheering section thinks these disadvantages will disappear as quickly as the initial shakiness they saw in Edwards's campaign against Faircloth. Rep. Melvin Watt (D-N.C.) says, "What has impressed me most is he's such a quick study. He has the same kind of mind as Clinton when it comes to soaking up issues and seeing how they fit together. And he has the ability to connect those issues to real life."

But it is mainly the Edwards personality his supporters expect to shine. As Wade Smith put it, "When John hugs you, you stay hugged. You know, there are some politicians you can say, their matches are wet. John's matches are dry."

Political researcher Brian Faler contributed to this report.