Consider it a brief stumble in a campaign that’s steaming ahead with a fresh infusion of momentum. After his surprisingly strong showing on Tuesday in the Wisconsin primaries-where he finished just 6 points behind Sen. John Kerry-Edwards has finally achieved what he’s been yearning for all along: a two-man race. The field has been cleared of clutter, and all media eyes are trained on him and Kerry. For the first time, he’s playing offense-taunting Kerry to go mano a mano with him in debates across the country and drawing sharper distinctions with his rival. He’s scrambling to raise the cash to compete effectively, inserting fund-raising trips to such states as New Jersey and Florida amid a crammed schedule. His campaign is deploying troops to key Super Tuesday states in a rush to build last-minute get-out-the-vote operations. “Voters around the country are looking for a debate,” Edwards told reporters on a conference call Wednesday. And when they get a chance to scrutinize the candidates, he predicted, voters will prove to “have a powerful response to me and my message.” So far, Edwards has defied the pundits who snickered that he couldn’t remain viable with only second-place showings. But come March 2, he needs to start winning-and winning big.

Though he insists publicly that he’s running a national campaign, Edwards is focusing on a handful of delegate-rich states. He’s ceding the Northeastern primaries to his New England rival and will instead aim his anti-free-trade message primarily at Ohio, Georgia, New York, and California-states that his campaign says have bled jobs because of globalization. Hence the pit stops in post-industrial cities like Rochester and Buffalo and Cleveland. On the stump, Edwards has taken to reciting a litany of grim statistics: 67,000 manufacturing jobs lost in Georgia under the Bush administration; 78,000 personal bankruptcies; 330,000 children without health insurance; 875 workers laid off at Tecumseh Products in Douglas, Ga., when the company relocated its plant to Brazil. “This is not our America,” he’ll say. “This is not the America you and I believe in.” Then he’ll leaven the mood with his optimistic vision of lifting people out of hardship.

But as the nomination race narrows to a two-man slugfest, the rhetoric is escalating. Ever since the Wisconsin primary, Edwards has delineated his differences with Kerry more pointedly, mainly on trade policy and the supposed job losses it causes. “It’s clear that Sen. Kerry and I have very different records on trade,” Edwards told reporters this week. “He voted for and supported NAFTA [the North American Free Trade Agreement]. I campaigned against it.” And lest anyone be swayed by Kerry’s assurances that he’ll fight against unfair trade agreements in the future, Edwards noted, “Sen. Kerry himself has pointed out many times in this campaign: records matter.” Beyond the policy differences, Edwards will continue to stress his personal background as a mill worker’s son who has seen “personally” the devastation caused by factory closings. Contrast that humble image, the campaign urges, with Kerry’s aura of patrician privilege. Other distinctions that Edwards is likely to make in the coming days: his refusal to take money from lobbyists; and his prescriptions for the struggling middle class, which the North Carolina senator claims are more specific than his rival’s.

All these differences, Edwards says, support his contention that he’s more electable than Kerry. Citing exit polls in states like South Carolina and Wisconsin, he argues that “it’s clear that my campaign is attracting independent voters, Reagan Democrats, the people we need to attract” to win in the general election. That backing served him well in Wisconsin’s open primary, where he beat Kerry among Republicans (who represented about 10 percent of primary voters) and independents (who comprised about 30 percent). Edwards may well reap such crossover votes in some of the March 2 primaries; seven of the 10 states voting that day allow independents to cast ballots. But he hasn’t been as successful in drawing Democratic votes, which, after all, are the most important votes of all in the primary. In an election season so dominated by talk of “electability,” Edwards hopes his proven ability to attract moderates and conservatives will convince the Democratic base to choose him. But exit polls show that his message isn’t always reaching its intended audience. Though Edwards tied Kerry among men and whites, he lost among blacks, lower-income voters, and those without a college education-all groups he’s targeted with his blue-collar, racially sensitive message.

Edwards also runs the risk of exhausting the appeal of that populist theme. While it certainly played well in states that hanker for a return to their heyday of manufacturing strength, it may not resonate with voters in states with different histories and concerns. For all his railing against the perils of free trade and globalization, the economic boom of the 1990s coincided with a Democratic administration that embraced such notions. If he pushes his anti-corporate arguments too far, Edwards-who excels at honey-coating his harangues-may turn off voters with what they deem a divisive message. He seemed dangerously close at the Columbia University event, as he denounced a new target of his stump speech: Wall Street fat cats. “They like the fact that one America is making a ton of money shifting the jobs of the other America overseas,” he said. “They’re going to fight us every step of the way. But we’re right, they’re wrong, and we’re going to win this fight!”

As the race turns national and resources stretch thin, Edwards will have to rely on the media-and its spin-to spread his message. Like Kerry, he can’t afford a full-blown ad campaign in top media markets like Los Angeles and New York. Nor can he rely on the sort of deeply entrenched organizations that served him well in Iowa and South Carolina (in Georgia, the just-hired state director was still working out of his home on Thursday). There’s always the possibility of help from the remnants of the Dean operation, should the former Vermont governor ever decide to endorse Edwards. The two have spoken at least twice since the night of the Wisconsin primary, but for now, Dean remains uncommitted. At this stage, says campaign manager Nick Baldick, all Edwards can count on for sure is “earned media, earned media, earned media”-the plentiful press coverage Edwards will garner now that he’s locked in a two-man race.

He got plenty of it in Manhattan on Thursday. At the rear of the auditorium, the press corps stood five deep and surrounded him ravenously when he strolled back to take questions. His campaign plane is more packed than ever with reporters. Through them, Edwards hopes to energize voters to deliver him the nomination. As he told the Columbia University audience, drawing a comparison with baseball star Alex Rodriguez, “I’m no A-Rod, but I proved in Wisconsin that I can close.” He certainly proved he could exceed expectations. On Super Tuesday, he’ll have to prove he can actually win.