John Edwards trails in third place. But his policy ideas are shaping the Democratic presidential race. He strides into an Iowa primary school where more than a hundred people have skipped their lunch to hear him, wearing jeans and flashing a smile that could sell toothpaste according to the Economist. He begins, as always, by mentioning his wife, who was diagnosed with incurable cancer in March. “She’s doing great.” But within seconds, John Edwards dives into the details of his health-care scheme. Then on to questions. The subjects range from high medical costs to the influence of Iran. “Here’s what I think,” he answers, before launching into a detailed plan to fix the problem.

Mr Edwards is a man of big plans. No other presidential candidate, of either party, can match the sheer quantity, let alone the ambition, of his policy ideas. He has grand, progressive, goals—to end the war in Iraq (obviously), provide universal health care, address global warming, eliminate poverty in America within 30 years—and detailed blueprints of how to do it all.

All this is a big change from 2004, when he first ran, unsuccessfully, for the Democratic nomination and then (equally unsuccessfully) as John Kerry’s vice-presidential running-mate. Those campaigns were built around his youthful charm, made-for-politics biography (the son of a mill-worker in North Carolina; the first member of his family to go to college) and a rousing stump speech about “two Americas”, one for the rich and one for the rest.

His life-story loomed large because the dashing former trial lawyer was short of both substance and political experience. He was a one-term senator with a silver tongue and populist touch but an unremarkable legislative record. (He voted against two of George Bush’s three tax cuts but for the war in Iraq.)

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