Hours after receiving The Des Moines Register’s official endorsement in a Sunday editorial, presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., was visibly exuberant in an appearance at the Heartland Senior Center, 205 S. Walnut St.

The endorsement, which described Edwards as the “polar opposite of George Bush.” In the final week of his current Iowa campaign before the caucuses, he used the reference as a means to separate himself from the other Democratic presidential candidates.

“You’ll see more of the negative sniping of the Democratic candidates against one another,” he said. “My campaign is about the politics of hope.”

Sunday, he discussed the social and economic division caused by President Bush.

Edwards said the solution to current division was from a Washington outsider like himself. Edwards has served only one term in the U.S. Senate. Opponents, however, say Edwards lacks the political experience to carry the presidency.

“Do you believe we need to change America and Washington?” Edwards asked. “Do you think this can be done by someone who’s been in Washington for decades?”

Despite months of enthusiastic campaigning and visiting all 99 Iowa counties, Edwards has failed to break out of the middle tier of presidential candidates. According to a recent Reuters/MSNBC/Zogby poll in Iowa, Edwards is ranked fourth among the candidates, with 14 percent of the public’s support. Yet, his moderate standing in the polls hasn’t dissuaded his supporters. Karen Anglin, 1514 Duff Ave., said she believed Edwards’ chances of a strong performance in the Iowa caucuses were good entering the final week of the race.

“I though he was an effective speaker and he presented his case well. That’s probably why he was such a good trial attorney,” she said. “He made a strong case with his presentation of asking if people were content with their lives.”

Anglin, the daughter of a sheet metal worker, said she identified more with Edwards’ small-town pedigree than with the backgrounds of the other presidential candidates.

“He worked his way through college, which is the background of more people in this country than extremely privileged upbringings,” she said.

Andy Tang, 814 Duff Ave., said he was receptive to Edwards’ message. Tang said he didn’t call himself a full-blown Edwards supporter, but a self-described anybody-but-Bush Democrat. He said he was optimistic of Edwards’ chances in the Iowa caucuses.

“Hopefully he will finish third in the caucuses,” Tang said. “It’s not vital to win the caucuses — for example, [former President Bill] Clinton finished third in the Iowa caucuses in 1992 and went on to win the presidency.”

Tang said he thought Iowa and New Hampshire aren’t vital to Edwards’ campaign. While some political analysts say Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., must perform well in New Hampshire to continue his campaign, Tang said Edwards only needs those states as a transfer to the Southern states, where he is rated much higher in polls.

“[Edwards] is the only candidate who can win more than one Southern state,” he said.