By Matthew Mosk
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 5, 2007; A04

Of the 2008 Democratic presidential contenders who voted to give President Bush authority to wage war in Iraq, only one will have no chance to make a very public U-turn when resolutions opposing the president's new war plan come before Congress in the coming days.

That one is John Edwards, the former North Carolina senator who showed again yesterday that he will find other venues to parlay his Senate vote into an extended mea culpa.

Edwards began drawing attention to his vote in fall 2005, writing an op-ed piece in The Washington Post that began with: "I was wrong."

The soul-searching continued yesterday on NBC's "Meet the Press."

"It wasn't just the weapons of mass destruction I was wrong about," Edwards said. "It's become absolutely clear -- and I'm very critical of myself for this -- become absolutely clear, looking back, that I should not have given the president this authority."

Edwards's nationally televised admission was just the start of a lengthy public dissection of the errors he said he made in casting the most important vote of his Senate tenure.

Some believe that kind of introspection has helped Edwards build a bridge to the most vocal anti-Iraq-war quarters of the Democratic Party and may help distinguish him from one of his chief rivals for the party's nomination, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.).

During yesterday's broadcast, Edwards said he believes that "anybody who wants to be president of the United States has got to be honest and open, be willing to admit when they've done things wrong."

"If she believes that her vote was wrong," Edwards said when asked about Clinton, "then, yes, she should say so. If she believes her vote was right, then she should defend it."

Clinton has not retracted her vote to authorize the war, saying "there are no do-overs in life." But she has made no secret of her distaste for the war.

On Friday, she defended her support for a nonbinding resolution expressing disapproval of Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq but also said she is ready to press for tougher action.

"John Edwards is fully aware that Senator Clinton has been a strong and consistent critic of the war and has taken responsibility for her vote," said Phil Singer, a Clinton campaign spokesman. "Instead of attacking the character of fellow Democrats, she is working to stop President Bush's escalation and bring an end to the war."

Edwards's apologies have earned him respect in some quarters of the antiwar movement.

Tim Carpenter, national director of Progressive Democrats of America, said in a recent interview that he believes many in that camp "have really reacted to some very strong statements [by Edwards] on the war. What he has shown is a capacity to grow and to learn."

Darcy Scott Martin, who runs the antiwar True Majority Action PAC, said yesterday that she can sense candidates are "searching for a level of credibility" on the war.

"It's pretty clear," she said, "that antiwar people don't really have a candidate yet. And he's trying to capture those people."

One candidate who will not have to develop a strategy to justify early backing of the Iraq war is Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), who expressed strong opposition while still a state senator in Illinois. Russert asked Edwards whether Democratic voters would say, "On the big issue of the war, Obama was right, Edwards was wrong."

"I was wrong," Edwards replied, but he added that voters should also consider "who has the depth, the maturity, the judgment to be president of the United States."

During the interview, Edwards also gave new details of his plan for universal health care, which he said would require new taxes.

He said he would propose spending $90 billion to $120 billion a year to expand Medicaid, provide subsidies for people who lack coverage, ask employers to take on additional coverage needs and create what he called "health markets" around the country to create some efficiencies.

"Yes, we will have to raise taxes," he said. That would start, he added, by repealing the tax cuts introduced by Bush during his first term.