Populist Edwards Announces Presidential Bid in New Orleans

"That's not just my vision - it's our vision," he said in his email to supporters. "And we can't wait for the next President to take office to begin fundamentally changing our country."

Edwards has been steadily running for president since he and Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) lost to President Bush and Vice President Cheney in 2004. He made his first post-2004 trip to New Hampshire in February 2005. He set up a poverty institute at the University of North Carolina and used the aftermath of Katrina, which exposed the plight of the underclass to the nation, to call for renewed efforts to eliminate poverty.

He sought to strengthen his foreign policy credentials -- a notable weakness in his first campaign -- through the Council on Foreign Relations, and he campaigned around the country for other Democrats and on behalf of minimum wage ballot initiatives, road-testing a populist economic message that proved successful for many House Democratic challengers in the 2006 midterm elections.

Perhaps most significantly, he recanted his original support for the war in Iraq, writing an op-ed column in The Washington Post in which he said of his vote for the 2002 resolution authorizing Bush to go to war: "I was wrong." His new position gives him the opportunity to appeal to the party's anti-war activists, many of whom remain wary of Clinton because of her long support for the war.

Edwards, 53, made millions of dollars as a successful trial lawyer in North Carolina, then entered politics in 1998. He won a Senate seat that year, defeating incumbent Republican Sen. Lauch Faircloth. He established a reputation as a quick study, a shrewd and tough questioner and one of the party's rising stars -- prompting him to run for president after just four years in public life.

His 2004 campaign lagged for most of 2003, but he caught fire in the final weeks before the Iowa caucuses, finishing second to Kerry. He parlayed that success into a victory in South Carolina a few weeks later and became Kerry's last and most significant rival for the nomination.

Edwards's performance in the primaries and his skills as a campaigner earned him a slot on the Democratic ticket, although a number of top Bush advisers said after the election ended that he proved to be a less substantial opponent than they had expected.

Shortly after the 2004 election, Edwards's wife Elizabeth was diagnosed with breast cancer. She underwent treatment and is reported to be in good health, publishing a book that made the best-seller list earlier this fall. Elizabeth Edwards did not join her husband in New Orleans this morning, but she will appear with him at a rally in North Carolina this weekend that concludes his initial tour as candidate for president for the second time.

Staff writer Debbi Wilgoren contributed to this report from Washington.