Dressed in basic beige, with wash-and-wear hair and toddlers in tow, Elizabeth Edwards could be the average suburban mom - except that she's not.

Some analysts suspect she may be sharper than anyone on the presidential ticket. As a law student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Elizabeth Anania dazzled classmates, including future husband John Edwards, with her intelligence, humor, and grit.

A classmate recalls watching Elizabeth stop a professor cold after a 20-minute grilling on a case. "The goal was to humble her, and it didn't happen," says Glenn Bergenfield, an attorney in Princeton, N.J. John Edwards, seated a few rows behind the "raven-haired beauty," took note. They were married the weekend after both completed bar exams.

Now, as her husband's closest adviser, she defends his public image as sharply as she once defended herself: No goofy hats (or helmets), no stock shots of dancing at campaign events, and no "trophy" wife. Mr. Edwards describes his wife as his conscience. "The smartest lawyer I know is my wife, Elizabeth," he says.

Yet few women in public life have mastered the art of gentle self-deprecation as effectively as Mrs. Edwards, who calls herself the "anti-Barbie," and also, "a window to John."

Married to one of America's most successful trial lawyers, Mrs. Edwards could dress at the level of her bank account. Instead, she drives herself about town, carries her own bags, and chuckles about the time she had to duck into a thrift shop to replace a stained blouse before a campaign event. It's a personal style that fits a campaign anchored in John Edwards's life story of hardworking textile families in tough times. It also fits a job requirement of the wife of every American vice president: Don't upstage the first lady.

"It is important that the first lady and wife of the vice president get along publicly, and that is not always the case," says Craig Schermer, historian at the National First Ladies' Library in Canton, Ohio.

Elizabeth Edwards and Teresa Heinz Kerry have many life experiences in common, from a cosmopolitan childhood to sudden tragic losses: Mrs. Edwards lost a son, Wade, in a traffic accident in 1996; Heinz Kerry lost her first husband, GOP Sen. John Heinz, in a plane crash in 1991. Both see themselves as "sounding boards" in their husbands' campaigns.

Some political insiders say that Heinz Kerry's regard for Mrs. Edwards was a factor in the decision to choose John.

"She's an amazing woman.... She's suffered loss, and she didn't drown with it," Heinz Kerry said on an interview with CNN's Larry King Live last week.

But there are also differences. While Heinz Kerry speaks her mind on a wide range of subjects, from public policy to botox and her pre-nup agreement with John Kerry, Mrs. Edwards makes a point of keeping the focus on her husband.

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