But this Memorial Day weekend, after holding steady to his lead in the polls in Iowa, John Edwards will try to make himself over as the anti-war candidate and then never look back.

Through ads and a newly launched Web site — www.supporthetroopsendthewar.com — Edwards asks Americans to "call on our government to support our troops in the most important way it can, by ending this war and bringing them home."

"Watch out for John Edwards," says Democrat political strategist Steve McMahon. "The position he is staking out on the war is far more popular with a much bigger group of Democratic primary voters than anyone currently understands."

And if he can just stop being associated with copious amounts of cash and hair gel, and get on with the business of being a serious in-your-face anti-war candidate, he just might be successful.

Edwards' position — which he staked out by rapping the Bush administration's use of the phrase "war on terror" as a Republican bumper sticker — is in a position that many Democrats wanted their primary candidates to occupy.

With the MoveOn.org crowd bitterly disappointed by the way Congress' Democrat leadership has fizzled on cutting war funding, Edwards is reading this one just right.

If the Howard Dean campaign taught Democrats anything, it is this: If you have the right candidate, with the right message, the grassroots will flock to you.

John Edwards understands that and now is actually doing something about it.

Get vocal. Buy a bunch of poster-board and markers. At a picnic or with family and friends, make signs that say “SUPPORT THE TROOPS - END THE WAR.” Bring them to your local Memorial Day parade. Many parades are held on Saturday or Sunday. If your parade is on Monday, however, we ask that you choose another action to honor the fallen. Then take a digital photo of yourself and your family or friends holding up the poster and tell us about it. We’ll include it in a “Democracy Photo Album” on our site.