Edwards embraces underdog status in New Hampshire

By Scott Malone and Matthew Bigg

MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (Reuters) - Democratic U.S. presidential candidate John Edwards, fresh off a surprise second-place showing in Iowa, touted his underdog status on Friday as he sought to challenge his better-financed rivals in New Hampshire.

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama won the Iowa caucuses on Thursday with New York Sen. Hillary Clinton finishing a close but disappointing third. The win gives Obama front-runner status in the state-by-state race to pick the Democratic nominee for the November presidential election.

Edwards, a former North Carolina senator, said he was ready to shake up the race ahead of Tuesday's primary in New Hampshire, a state he said often defied conventional wisdom.

"What we learned last night is that the status quo is yesterday and that change is tomorrow," Edwards told an early morning rally.

"I am not the candidate of money, I am not the candidate of glitz, I am not the candidate of glamour. Nor do I claim to be," said Edwards, who has trailed Obama and Clinton in fundraising.

Edwards described himself as "the people's candidate."

The son of a textile-mill worker repeated his message of fighting the power of corporate America, promising to use the White House to "fight the corporate greed that has an iron-fisted grip on our democracy."

Edwards, who was the Democratic Party's 2004 vice presidential nominee, is running third among Democrats in New Hampshire, trailing both Clinton, a former first lady who would be the nation's first woman president, and Obama, who would be the first black president, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released on Friday.