WASHINGTON, Oct 31 (AFP) - Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards, as he repeated incessantly while campaigning for the party's presidential nomination, is the son of a mill worker.
If he reminded his audience at every opportunity of his humble origins it is because they are a cornerstone of the beliefs of a man who became the first member of his family to attend college and went on to become a successful trial lawyer and US senator.
The 51-year-old Edwards gave Massachusetts Senator John Kerry a fair run for the presidential nod before signing on as his number two for Tuesday's election against Republican incumbent George W. Bush.
Many see him as a future president and even Kerry, who traded harsh words with Edwards during their nomination duel, expressed admiration for his style after the race was over.
Edwards, the wunderkind of the Democratic party, mixes homespun charm and political tough-talk as he stakes his claim to be the next vice president of the United States.
Turning repeatedly to his childhood, Edwards speaks of "Two Americas" in the populist stump speech honed over long months on the campaign trail.
"We still live in two different Americas -- one for people who have lived the American Dream and don't have to worry, and another for most Americans who work hard and still struggle to make ends meet," he says. "It doesn't have to be that way."
Democrats are hoping the easy delivery, southern grace and boyish appeal will boost Kerry, who has battled an image as a stiff New England aristocrat with trouble connecting to voters.
Edwards brought youth and energy to the Democratic Party after turning his back on the law, climbing through the rough-and-tumble ranks of American politics in what has seemed like record time.
Born June 10, 1953 in South Carolina, Edwards was raised in neighbouring North Carolina, the state he represents in the US Senate.
At 11, he wrote a school essay "Why I Want to Be a Lawyer." His mission: to rise from his modest origins and "protect innocent people from blind justice the best I can."
He proved a brilliant attorney, representing parents who lost their children in botched hospital deliveries, and children who lost their parents in car wrecks.
Edwards once convinced a jury to award 25 million dollars to a nine-year-old girl who was severely injured in a badly built swimming pool.
Success came swiftly in politics. He dispatched an incumbent Republican senator in the 1998 election, and just two years later in 2000 was touted as a possible running-mate for Al Gore.
His entry into politics sprung from a wrenching personal ordeal -- the death of his son Wade in a freak traffic accident in 1996.
The athletic teenager had been driving to the family's beach home in North Carolina when his car turned over in strong wind and caught fire. Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, were devastated.
Wade had pressed his father to seek public office. According to Edwards's former law partner David Kirby: "It is a case of the father fulfilling the son's expectations."
Edwards himself put it more simply in his book "Four Trials": "As much as anyone is, Wade is who I am."
As the vice presidential candidate Edwards has been expected to respond to Republican attacks but the role has fit uneasily on the shoulders of a man described by newspapers as blessed with a "sunny optimism."
"Many of us are angry at what George Bush and Dick Cheney have done to our great country and the values we cherish," Edwards said on the campaign trail in Ohio last month. "But anger never changed America; our actions do.
"And this is what we will do -- create good paying jobs, invest in the jobs of the future, and lift up and expand our great middle class," he said.
"Where a child no longer sees despair when his parents sort bills at the kitchen table, but believes in the promise of America. That hard work, responsibility and the love of his family can create a future filled with hope and grace."

10/31/2004 02:37 GMT - AFP