The John Edwards campaign held a conference call this afternoon making their case for the former North Carolina senator, vowing to take the nomination fight all the way the Democratic National Convention.

Still, they spent a good deal of time bashing Sen. Hillary Clinton, painting her as the “status quo” candidate controlled by Washington lobbyists.

With Obama leading Clinton in New Hampshire, and Edwards within striking distance of her by one account, the Edwards campaign is now attempting to re-frame the race, making it a contest between Edwards and Obama and about
what type of change the country wants.

There was some pointed analysis by senior adviser Joe Trippi, who knows all too well what it’s like to be in Clinton’s shoes. He managed Howard Dean’s campaign in 2004. Then the frontrunner, Dean and his campaign imploded in Iowa after a third place finish and never managed to recover.

He offered this take from New Hampshire:

“Any time there’s damage to the presumptive frontrunner, the press focuses. Look at 2004: Kerry won, Dean screamed and the focus falls off second place finishers. Here again, the frontrunner took third, like Dean. Particularly because Clinton made such a strong case that they had a firewall in New Hampshire, again attention is on Barack Obama and can Hillary Clinton win in her firewall state.

“Now it doesn’t look like that is going to happen. Right now we feel good about where we are. We never claimed this was the firewall of all firewalls. If she doesn’t win here, it’s hard to see how it is not a complete failure and a rejection of the status quo candidacy.”

For its part, the Edwards campaign underwent a streamlining process in the early summer, Trippi said. Clinton, he said, is only now realizing the difficulties of retooling a campaign in a compressed schedule — something that set her and her message back in the days after Iowa.

At this point, Edwards is hoping for a strong second-place finish in New Hampshire and then it’s on to Nevada and South Carolina, which Edwards won in 2004. It’s not clear when Edwards will come to Nevada or just how much time he’ll spend here, but his army of 75 Iowa organizers are trickling into Las Vegas today and most will be on the ground working by Thursday, according to his Nevada spokesman.

The help is sorely needed here. The Edwards campaign has lagged behind Clinton and Obama in building the type of precinct-by-precinct organization necessary to win a caucus. One wildcard: The 60,000-strong Culinary Union has yet to endorse and will do so on Wednesday morning.

Still, with the union holding out for Iowa — and then New Hampshire, it’s clear they want to pick the surefire winner. So an Edwards nod looks unlikely.