Edwards: Dems need him to face McCain

[Ron Burgundy]

AP - A day after getting his "butt kicked" in the Nevada caucuses, presidential candidate John Edwards said Sunday that he's the only Democrat who can successfully take on Republican John McCain.

McCain won Saturday's South Carolina GOP primary and Edwards, a former North Carolina senator looking to make the Democratic contest here a three-way race, told reporters that a campaign finance advocate like himself is needed to counter McCain on that issue.

"This is a guy who has made central to his political life campaign finance reform. It seems to me we ought to be putting up somebody up against him who's never taken money from special interest packs or Washington lobbyists," said Edwards, who's trailed Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama in polls. "Between the three of us, that's me."

On Saturday, Edwards got 4 percent of support in Nevada, compared with Clinton's 51 percent and Obama's 45 percent. The South Carolina native who won here in 2004 insisted he's not going away.

"Oh, I'm in the race. I'm in the race for the long-term," he said. "Got my butt kicked and now I'm going to get up in spite. Going to fight for all the things that I care about — and those causes have not gone away and haven't changed."

Edwards said McCain "is starting to look like the Republican nominee and I think it's important for us to have somebody to run against McCain who can beat him and the national polls show that I'm the one who beats John McCain in the general election."

Edwards has made the electability claim against McCain in campaign ads that are based on a CNN poll taken before Iowa's caucuses that had him as the only Democrat with more support than Republicans in head-to-head match ups. But since then Obama won Iowa and Clinton won New Hampshire. After the New Hampshire contest, CNN's polling showed Clinton and Obama lead GOP contenders in head-to-head matchups.

source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080120/ap_on_el_pr/edwards_sc [link]