Analysis: Is Edwards Real or a Phony?

NASHUA, N.H. - John Edwards' presidential campaign is not so much about the "two Americas" as it is about the two John Edwardses.

One image of Edwards is that he's a champion of the embattled middle class and poor, an up-from-his-bootstraps populist waging war against special interests who favor the rich and established.

The other take: He's a phony.

Which is it? Is the Democratic presidential candidate a man of the people, as he says, or the fake his rivals call him?

It may be that Edwards is not quite either caricature - that the answer, like much in politics, is less black and white than gray, and discerning voters in Iowa and New Hampshire will give …