MARIETTA, Ohio (AP) --
Sen. John Edwards wants to be the voice inside voters' heads as they cast their ballots Tuesday.
The Democratic vice presidential candidate implores people to picture themselves in voting booths asking themselves questions about
President Bush's record. Then,
Edwards crystalizes what he says is the choice voters face: "Four more years of the same. Or a fresh start for America."
The approach, part of a repackaged speech, is similar to one the first-term senator sometimes used in North Carolina courtrooms when he was a trial lawyer. (
Special Report: America Votes 2004)
The gifted orator, for example, won a multimillion-dollar verdict after asking jurors to put themselves in the shoes of a child who would face challenges throughout her life because of injuries caused by a negligent company.
On the campaign trail, the Democrat has tried to make policy personal by showing voters how the decisions made in Washington affect their daily lives, rather than packing his speeches with statistics and Senate-speak.
That's more the approach of Sen.
John Kerry. However, the top of the Democratic ticket did borrow the new voting spiel from his running mate this week after Edwards debuted it Tuesday in Reading, Pennsylvania.
Edwards was a bit shaky as he read the retooled remarks from a podium for the first time. But by Saturday, the riff rolled off of his tongue before a crowd in front of a red-brick National Guard armory in this southeast Ohio river town.
In three days, Edwards said, "you're going to pull that curtain back. You're going to walk in. You're going to look down at the ballot and on one side of the ballot will be George Bush and
Dick Cheney. Four more years of the same. But on the other side will be John Kerry and John Edwards. A fresh start for America."
Then, Edwards painted a scenario.
"I want you to assume for just a minute that you go in the morning to vote. And you know, you just dropped your kids off at school and you're late for work and your car's about to run out of gas," he said. "And you walk in, and you're in a hurry. And you want to vote but you want to make the right choice. So you ask yourself: over the course of the last four years, has my price at the pump gone up?"
"Yes!" answered the crowd in unison.
"Has the cost of college gone up?" he asked.
"Yes!" came the response.
"Is George Bush ever going to do anything about this?"
"No!"
"Do I want four more years of the same?"
"No!"
"Or do I want a fresh start for America with President John Kerry in the White House?" Edwards yelled as his audience shrieked in agreement.
In the same fashion, he then asked those in the crowd to picture themselves voting on their lunch break after picking up a prescription slip from their doctor and thinking about the rising cost of medicine and health insurance premiums under Bush.
A final scenario had Edwards telling his audience to assume they were voting in the evening upon contemplating Bush's record on Iraq just after reading an e-mail from a friend serving in the war.
His new pitch finished, Edwards ended with the one question he clearly wants to linger in voters' minds: "Do you want a fresh start for America with President John Kerry in the White House?"
