Washington ? Sen. John Edwards led Democratic presidential candidates in attacking President Bush’s policies Saturday, but differences began to emerge in their strategies to force Bush out of the White House next year.

In two days of speeches before the party’s most devoted activists, the candidates offered differences over potential war in Iraq and their own personal histories.

“And so, I ask you, and I ask the American people, are you better off than you were two years ago?” Edwards said in his address to the Democratic National Committee. “In two short years, George W. Bush has taught us what the W stands for: Wrong. Wrong for our children, wrong for families, wrong for our values, wrong for America.”

Although most of the Democrats’ fire was aimed at the president, the candidates will have to survive a crowded primary contest to challenge Bush next fall. Their speeches included the first subtle digs at their Democratic opponents.

Rep. Richard Gephardt of Missouri said he was not a flashy, flavor-of-the-month candidate. Gephardt commended to his listeners his 26-year career in Congress, while Edwards, a North Carolina senator in his first term, said his lack of political experience was a virtue.

“If you think the only way to restore people’s faith in our government is someone … who’s been in Washington politics for decades, I am certainly not your guy,” he said.

Edwards, Gephardt and the Rev. Al Sharpton of New York City said their humble roots meant they understood the worries and problems of average Americans, a swipe at Bush, who grew up wealthy, the product of a politically powerful family.