Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are making baby steps toward playing nice, after suffering downturns in the South Carolina polls following their heated debate Monday and potentially opening the door for rival John Edwards to emerge as the well-mannered alternative to the Democratic frontrunners.

Both Clinton and Obama have pulled negative ads against each other, with just hours remaining until voters head to the polls Saturday in the Palmetto State.

Clinton pulled an ad from state radio waves Thursday that mocked Obama for saying the Republicans were "the party of ideas for a pretty long chunk of time."

Obama and many independent observers had panned the ad as a mischaracterization of his remarks.

Then Obama took down his own radio response, which said "she'll say anything and change nothing," in an attempt to cool the angry spat.

The race between the Democratic titans over the past several weeks has been tainted by allegations of voter intimidation and unfair attack ads, comments about Obama's past drug use and rumors of his family's Muslim background, as well as remarks tinged with racial insensitivity.

At risk are voters who say they're getting turned off to the negative tactics.

"I'm encouraging everyone to move on and we ought not get distracted on these ancillary things," South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn told FOX News on Friday.

Perhaps taking a cue from the GOP race, which was notable for its civility at the debate Thursday night in Boca Raton, Fla., Clinton and Obama have stepped back to rationalize the tense tone of their race and even hinted at a desire to pull back.

Clinton said on the NBC's "Today Show" Friday, "I try not to attack first, but I have to defend myself - I do have to counterpunch.

"I took a lot of incoming fire for many, many months and I was happy to absorb it because obviously, you know, I felt that was part of my responsibility. But toward the end of a campaign you have to set the record straight."

Obama said Thursday in Kingstree, S.C., Bill Clinton "is entirely justified in wanting to promote his wife's candidacy. I have no problem with that whatsoever. ... So I just want to make clear -- all I'm concerned about is making sure my record does not get distorted."

While the two work out their differences, Edwards is waiting in the wings.

"We saw all of the petty, personal bickering," Edwards told several hundred people at a restaurant in South Carolina Friday. "That may be the way they do politics in New York, that may be the way that they do politics in Chicago. But South Carolina's better than that."

After Clinton bashed Obama for his relationship with indicted Chicago landlord Tony Rezko and Obama bashed Clinton for sitting on the board at Wal-Mart and letting her husband campaign for her at Monday's debate, Edwards moved in to claim he represents the "grown-up wing of the Democratic Party."

He riffed off that claim Friday, releasing two ads in South Carolina his campaign said focus on the issues "as Sens. Clinton and Obama continue to squabble."

One ad, called "Grown Up," includes clips from the debate showing his rivals attacking each other.

The former North Carolina senator has yet to win an early contest -- Obama won Iowa and Clinton won Nevada and New Hampshire -- but his home state of South Carolina could be his best chance for a strong showing.

RealClearPolitics.com poll averages from South Carolina over the past week show Obama and Clinton losing traction in tandem, while Edwards is trending upward.

A Reuters/C-Span/Zogby poll from Jan. 22 to Jan. 24 of 811 likely voters showed Edwards with a 6-point gain since the beginning of the week. The poll gave Edwards 21 percent, Clinton 25 percent and Obama 38 percent. Obama leads both candidates by more than 10 points in most polls.

A story Friday in South Carolina's The State newspaper highlighted the Edwards uptick, saying the former senator had started rising right after the debate.

Click here to read more on the article in The State about Edwards' uptick in South Carolina.

FOX News' Bonney Kapp and The Associated Press contributed to this report.