CLEVELAND – Hours before the only vice presidential debate of the campaign, Sen. John Edwards told supporters Tuesday that he and Vice President Dick Cheney don’t share the same view of the world – “and that’s a good thing.”

Cheney, who was arriving in Cleveland at mid-afternoon after preparing for the debate from his home in Jackson, Wyo., was expected to offer a strong rebuttal to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry’s criticism of the Bush administration and its policies in Iraq, a focus of the first presidential debate.

Edwards likely will brush aside criticism of his 20-year career as a trial lawyer while pointing out Cheney’s ties to corporate giant Halliburton when they debate at Case Western Reserve University. The confrontation is as much about campaign momentum as it is presenting opposing views of Iraq, national security and domestic issues.

“Tonight, I’ll also get a chance to talk about our plan for health care, our plan for jobs in America, our plan … to keep the American people safe, to keep the American people secure,” Edwards said. “There couldn’t be a starker contrast. I do not have the same view of the world as Dick Cheney, and that’s a good thing, that’s not a bad thing.”

The White House called Edwards a “master litigator,” a backhanded compliment as well as a reminder of the Republicans’ call for limits on medical liability lawsuits. In the debate, Cheney will focus on differences with the Democrats on the war on terrorism and the economy, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

“Sen. Edwards is someone who is a master litigator, who spent quite a bit of time successfully arguing before juries as a personal injury trial lawyer. The vice president recognizes that going into the debate,” McClellan said.

“Our opponents have a very narrow view of how to wage the war on terrorism. The president believes that this is a broad war on terrorism and that’s why he has outlined a two-prong strategy for winning the war on terrorism,” McClellan said.

Republicans are hoping Cheney will show up his youthful counterpart and stifle the grousing about Bush’s scowling performance in his debate with Kerry. Edwards, a youthful first-term senator without Cheney’s long record of government service, spoke at a pre-debate forum designed as a show of confidence.

“When I walk into that debate tonight and I sit down, I am there for you,” Edwards said. “John Kerry was there for you last Thursday. For us, that’s what this is about. That’s what this fight is about.”

Debating Bush last week provided a boost for Kerry, who told supporters in Tipton, Iowa, on Tuesday that he agreed with former Iraq administrator L. Paul Bremer’s remark that the United States “paid a big price” for not placing enough troops in Iraq after overthrowing Saddam Hussein.

“I hope tonight Cheney acknowledges the mistakes,” Kerry said. “The truth is that George Bush has made some enormous errors of judgment in going into Iraq, how he went into Iraq, what he decided to do with respect to Iraq.”

The Bush-Cheney campaign indicated it welcomed another opportunity to argue that Bush had the right plan to keep the country safe while Kerry wasn’t to be trusted with national security.

“They’ll probably have a very good stylistic presentation tonight,” Cheney adviser Mary Matalin told CNN on Tuesday, “but as was the case in Miami with the president, the vice president will have the stronger arguments and he will talk about the record, which they have refused to do so far, and he will lay out the second-term agenda, which they have failed to do so far.”

Edwards will argue that as an attorney he represented average people in their fight against powerful interests, Kerry senior adviser Joe Lockhart said.

“The American public needs an advocate like that,” Lockhart told CNN, “as opposed to somebody who has a vested special interest in Washington, ran Halliburton, now probably one of the most shameful companies in America, just before he came to the White House … and is still making money off of Halliburton.”

Keying off of the North Carolina senator’s past, the Bush campaign was rolling out two television ads assailing “out-of-control personal injury trial lawyers.” The ads blame them for “frivolous lawsuits” that have caused hospitals to close maternity wards, obstetricians and gynecologists to leave the profession, and women to wait three months for mammograms.

Lockhart said the idea that the pool of doctors is diminishing is “one of the biggest urban myths in the country right now … John Edwards will not be shy about talking about taking on people who don’t have the advantage, who aren’t powerful, who are taking on powerful interests. That’s what he’s done his whole life.”

Some polls put Bush with a slight lead over Kerry, while others show the race dead even.