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Check this out

http://indyweek.com/durham/2003-11-19/first.html

Both semesters sophomore year I also was in political science classes with Charlie, including an intro to foreign government. Another political friend of ours in Hinton James that sophomore year was Elizabeth Anania, now married to U.S. Sen. John Edwards. Charlie, Elizabeth and I were all active in a number of anti-Nixon activities. I was interviewed by the Boston Globe earlier this fall about Charlie after Elizabeth told a Globe reporter she had known Charlie and gave the reporter my name and phone number

Edwards is a strange political animal: a multimillionaire who harbors a laborer's anger; a man with an expensive haircut who wears a cheap watch and worn-down shoes; the owner of four houses who employs a live-in nanny and a housekeeper but still celebrates his wedding anniversaries at Wendy's because that was what he and his wife did when they first married.

He has even written a book, "Four Trials," about his life as a lawyer, in which he casts himself as a champion of average people against powerful businesses and tries to dispel any notion that he is an ambulance chaser. His speeches often sound as though they could come from a union leader. He derides Bush as an elitist and a "phony" who cares about nothing but protecting the wealthy.

At the very least Edwards could be described as driven by a belief system learned from his father, who retired as a midlevel manager in the Milliken Co. textile mill in the tiny town of Robbins, North Carolina. It is a strict egalitarian code, founded on a distrust of big business and a simmering indignation at perceived injustices faced by working people in America.

"His overriding theory is to have a country where you put the starting point closer to the same place."

Edwards, who is 50 but looks much younger, was considered a hot prospect in Washington two years ago - a kind of Bill Clinton in the making.

Because of his trial skills, Senate leaders chose him in early 1999 to depose key witnesses and deliver the closing arguments for the defense in the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton.

So impressive were his first two years in office that Al Gore was said to have considered him for vice president.People magazine named him the sexiest politician in America.

Edwards is itching to engage Bush in a one-on-one debate, and when he talks about the possibility, his public mask slips a bit. A schoolyard machismo flashes.

"If I can be on a stage with George Bush in a debate in 2004, with my background, what I've spent my life doing, wouldn't you love to see it?" he told some voters in Merrimack, New Hampshire, in September, laughing hard. "I can beat this guy. I can beat this guy." The New York Times