From The Seattle PI
By Joel Connelly

If you have ever worked as a Washington, D.C., lobbyist, John Edwards does not want you to think of even applying for a job in his White House.

The 2004 Democratic vice presidential candidate has embraced a hard, confrontational populism being sold in rural towns across Iowa as his ticket in the first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses.

Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, by contrast, is running as a conciliator who will heal the nation’s political wounds.

And New York Sen. Hillary Clinton is saying she is the person to make change work, thanks to eight years experience at the White House in the 1990s.

The three are locked in a tight-as-a-tick caucus race. Two different polls Sunday showed two different front-runners.

Edwards has the most at stake. The caucuses will either propel him into the center of the race lately dominated by two more glamorous rivals or provide him with a ticket to political palookaville.

A very small number of Americans will decide the issue Thursday night. The top Democratic turnout in the history of Iowa caucuses has been 122,000 voters.

Read more Edwards