I guess when you are struggling in third place you are allowed to take some risks and speak the truth:

Grinnell, Ia. – America needs to reconsider its punitive approach to “the so-called war on drugs,” presidential candidate John Edwards said here today.

“We’re not going to build enough prisons to solve this problem,” he told a crowd of about 800 at Grinnell College.

The former North Carolina senator grinned when a young man sitting behind him on stage asked about drug policy. “Only on college campuses,” Edwards joked before answering.

He said he’s especially concerned about mandatory minimum sentences for first-time drug offenders, which he said should be reconsidered. He added that too few drug offenders get treatment.

“You go to jail, you come out of jail, and a lot of people go right back to the environment that got them in trouble to begin with,” he said. “…We need to get them the help that they need; if they need education, if they need job training, if they need drug rehabilitation.”

I kind of doubt I'll ever hear anything like this from Hillary. I imagine that if (when?) she becomes president, her approach to the drug war and crime in general would be similar to Bill's, which was horrible:

Unlike state prison systems, the President and Congress have direct control of the federal prison population. Under President Reagan's eight year term, the number of prisoners under federal jurisdiction rose from 24,363 (1980) to 49,928 (1988), and under President George Bush's four-year term, the federal system grew to 80,259 (1992).

However, under President Bill Clinton, the number of prisoners under federal jurisdiction doubled, and grew more than it did under the previous 12-years of Republican rule, combined (to 147,126 by February, 2001).

As of December 31, 1999, a year prior to the completion of his term in office, the Clinton Administration already well outstripped the Reagan and Bush Administrations with a federal incarceration rate of rate of 42 per 100,000. This was more than double the federal incarceration rate at the end of President Reagan's term (17 per 100,000), and 61% higher than at the end of President George Bush's term (25 per 100,000). ... Fifty-eight percent of these inmates (63,448) are serving time for drug offenses--a 62% increase since 1990.

To be fair, I'm sure that if Edwards somehow manages to become the Democratic nominee he'll stop all the crazy talk about reforming our approach to drug policy, and will become a drug war hawk, just like the Clenis was.