[00:08.68]about Massachusetts Senator John Kerry since his surprise victory in the Iowa caucuses.

[00:13.61]But it won't be nearly as easy to get the kind of access Walter Shapiro got in August 2002,

[00:19.80]when he and the senator took a plane ride together

[00:22.50]with Mr. Kerry in the pilot's seat.

[00:24.77]"It's a totally sparkling day as we're flying from Boston to Keene, New Hampshire,

[00:29.48]And as John Kerry begins the slow turn to the Keene airport,

[00:34.88]the cell phone in John Kerry's pocket goes off. And I'm thinking,

[00:39.71]'In New York state where I live,

[00:41.40]it's against the law to talk on a cell phone and drive a car.

[00:44.89]And he's about to land a plane.'

[00:47.05]And he did open up the cell phone and hand it to the co-pilot

[00:50.94]before he made the perfect landing.

[00:52.45]But the point here was that John Kerry's mother had entered

[00:56.77]the hospital just that day for what Kerry knew was to be the final illness,

[01:01.78]and that cell phone was an umbilical cord, if you will,

[01:06.38]linking John Kerry to his mother's bedside."

[01:09.08]That experience gave Walter Shapiro a telling glimpse

[01:12.00]into how Presidential candidates balance personal worries

[01:15.20]with the never-ending demands of the campaign trail.

[01:18.12]It's those kinds of revelations that make the early stages

[01:21.32]of a campaign his favorite part of the race for the U.S. Presidency.

[01:25.32]"I was with Howard Dean a couple of days before the Iowa caucuses,

[01:28.63]and Howard Dean had two full press buses,

[01:32.70]maybe 70 to 100 reporters traveling with him," he says.

[01:36.70]"When I started my book, the opening scene is myself,

[01:41.09]Howard Dean and a lone aide in a Vermont state car going to the neighboring

[01:46.70]state of New Hampshire in September of 2002.

[01:49.19]There was a sense that all of these candidates

[01:52.50]are accessible if you're out there early."

[01:56.60]In One-Car Caravan, Walter Shapiro tracks campaigns

[02:00.02]that would eventually sputter to an early end,

[02:02.62]like that of Florida Senator Bob Graham. Others, like that of Howard Dean,

[02:07.33]gained momentum in ways no one expected.

[02:10.03]"In September 2002, I am there as his lone aide hands Howard Dean

[02:15.72]the first photostat of the first brochure of campaign 2004.

[02:20.51]And Dean turns to his aide and says, 'Kate, did you get a price on this?'

[02:24.47]And you really got the feeling that if Kate had said,

[02:28.07]'Yes, Governor, it's going to be $6,000, not $4,000,'

[02:31.49]the entire soap bubble enterprise that was the Dean campaign

[02:36.10]in those days would just totally collapse.

[02:39.01]And even though Howard Dean had a rough time in Iowa,

[02:42.14]he has gone from that moment to being the best-funded Presidential candidate

[02:46.25]in the history of the Democratic party," he said.

[02:46.79]Howard Dean voiced his own brand of self assurance

[02:49.60]even after finishing third in the Iowa caucuses.

[02:52.69]"All I can do is fight. That's all I know how to do,

[02:55.10]is stand up for what I believe in.

[02:56.51]And what I believe in is ordinary Americans

[02:59.21]having control of their government again," he said.

[03:00.61]Walter Shapiro also watched the candidates assemble staffs,

[03:03.92]raise funds, and, in some cases,

[03:05.94]struggle with the most fundamental question of all,

[03:08.71]whether they really wanted to run for President.

[03:11.41]That was especially true of John Edwards,

[03:13.54]a first-term senator from North Carolina.

[03:16.34]"I managed to follow the entire deliberation in November

[03:21.24]and December of 2002 as John Edwards wrestled with the question of,

[03:26.64]'Do I give up my Senate seat from North Carolina to run for President?'

[03:31.46]I think for all these candidates in deciding to run,

[03:33.88]one should never underestimate egoism and ambition.

[03:37.98]But in the case of Mr. Edwards,

[03:39.56]there was an underlying idealism as well.

[03:43.34]He really believed that it would be unpatriotic not to run," he says.

[03:49.86]"In the America you and I will build together,

[03:52.85]we will say no to kids going to bed hungry,

[03:55.58]no to kids who don't have the clothes to keep them warm, and no, forever,

[03:59.58]to any American working full time and living in poverty.

[04:03.29]Not in our America, not in our America, said Mr. Edwards.

[04:05.88]After finishing a strong second in the Iowa caucuses,

[04:08.69]John Edwards has moved on to New Hampshire,

[04:11.21]where he and other Democratic candidates

[04:12.90]are waiting for the results of the upcoming primary.

[04:15.67]Whatever the outcome,

[04:17.26]Walter Shapiro says the New Hampshire primary marks a turning point.

[04:21.25]"From here on in we're going to be on charter flights.

[04:24.38]We're going to be crossing the nation with whoever the surviving candidates are.

[04:27.88]One will never be more than five miles away from a major airport,