Edwards: "It Is a Fight"

The AP from Indianola

Democrat John Edwards is using the final phase of his bid to win Iowa's caucuses to assure undecided voters that he has the tenacity for a campaign against the GOP presidential nominee.

Along with wife, Elizabeth, Edwards turned to a new tactic Thursday night by meeting privately with a handful of undecided voters before delivering his stump speech at a larger campaign event.

"It is a fight," he told the small group sitting around him. "That is a fundamental difference between me and some of the Democratic candidates."

Edwards took questions in a private setting that usually is closed to reporters, but his campaign allowed The Associated Press to listen in.

One Iowan, Russ Vanderhoef, told Edwards that John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, did not adequately respond to GOP attacks and asked Edwards how he would be different.

Edwards vowed "to fight back with everything I've got." His wife then described how he grew up in North Carolina mill towns and said he was well prepared to handle the pressure.

"Mill towns are a rough place to grow up," she said. "There's that much fight in him."

Edwards is in a tight race in Iowa with rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, and is betting his retail politics will energize undecided voters. When Edwards ran for president in 2004, he finished second in the caucuses and ended up on the national ticket as Kerry's running mate.

Rita Bresnan, another undecided voter at the private meeting, asked Edwards how he would achieve his goals.

Edwards replied that he is a battler by nature and has based his campaign on deeply held convictions. "It's visceral," he said. "It's the gut for me."

Bresnan said afterward that Edwards still has work to do to win her vote at the Jan. 3. caucuses.

Vanderhoef expressed a similar sentiment, saying electability will be a key issue for him.

"I'm not the kind of voter that's going to vote on the personality of a candidate," Vanderhoef said. "I'm looking for somebody who is going to fight."