US Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards has admitted his campaign staff circulated a negative memo during the Iowa contest suggesting ways to undermine his opponents.
Edwards has promised New Hampshire voters an optimistic and inclusive America, hoping to build on his second-place finish in Iowa with a strong showing in the state's primary next week.
After finishing a day campaigning with a euphoric town hall meeting attended by more than 300 supporters, Edwards admitted his campaign staff had circulated the memo during the Iowa contest.
"I found out about (the memo) tonight for the first time and I take full responsibility for anything that happened in my campaign. ... It is wrong and I have given (campaign workers) instructions it's not ever to happen again," Edwards said on Wednesday.
ABC News, which obtained a copy of the memo, reported that the memo told campaign workers to tell undecided Iowa voters that former Vermont Governor Howard Dean was a "Park Avenue elitist from New York City" and that Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts has "the stale record of a Washington insider."
Earlier, Edwards derided President George W. Bush for creating an America of haves and have-nots. The North Carolina senator stood on an upturned milk crate in a packed diner in Nashua, New Hampshire, and painted a populist vision of a society where the poor and middle class people would have a better life.
"Pessimists and cynics did not build this country, optimists built this country," Edwards said.
"The best way to change America is with a positive and uplifting image of what is possible in America," he said. "This democracy, this government does not belong to that crowd in Washington, the lobbyists; it belongs to you."
After unexpectedly winning almost a third of the votes in the Iowa caucuses, Edwards cancelled plans to campaign this week in South Carolina, instead focusing on Tuesday's New Hampshire primary. South Carolina holds a primary the week after New Hampshire and Edwards has been leading in some polls there.