That’s the Seattle Times headline. The Seattle P.I.‘s story is headlined, “Edwards assails Bush budget,” but begins with the snarky but honest, “Good gosh: Can it be presidential campaign season again already?”
Yesterday, in Seattle, John Edwards — director of the Center of Poverty, Work and Opportunity, a Univ. of No. Carolina think tank — “addressed a public-policy coalition, a low-income housing group and a state Democratic banquet.”
Today, Edwards and the Service Employees Int’l Union (SEIU) leads a downtown Seattle rally to unionize security guards, a large low-wage group. (P.I.)
[I]n a speech to the Progressive Legislative Action Network [that’s a David Sirota baby — it has its own site] … Edwards said poverty would resonate louder if politicians did a better job of championing the poor, who are mostly working women with children.
“These are the people the American people would embrace if they just heard their stories,” Edwards said.
As for the polls that indicate little interest… Edwards retorted: “That’s our [Democrats’] job, isn’t it? Our job is not to follow, it is to lead. ….”
Edwards said he had no idea whether poverty would become a major concern to voters next year, or in 2008.
And he said he didn’t care.
“I work on poverty because I think it’s the right thing to do. I don’t think there’s any way to predict what the leading issue will be in the next two to four years.”
BELOW: Edwards’ travels, PAC work for local Dem candidates nationwide, and the AP story in today’s WaPo:
The Times’ story also describes Edwards’ coast-to-coast travels and his PAC’s work to help local Dem candidates. Below, snippets from the AP story in the WaPo:
Edwards Says Poverty a Key Democrat Issue
By CURT WOODWARD
The Associated Press
Tuesday, August 16, 2005; 10:21 PM
SEATTLE — Democrats can build the party’s national strength by pushing their policies in statehouses around the country, 2004 vice presidential candidate John Edwards told a group of legislators Tuesday.
“We know what we believe. We know what we stand for. But the American people need to hear it from us,” the former U.S. senator told a group of about 300 at a waterfront convention center.
Edwards’ speech highlighted a program put on by the Progressive Leadership Action Network, a group that aims to rival the clout of established right-leaning think tanks such as the American Legislative
Exchange Council. […..]
Action Network organizers hope the new Helena, Mont.-based nonprofit will become a clearinghouse of ideas, support and research for left-leaning state lawmakers, but acknowledge they have a lot of work to do.
The group is hoping to raise $1.5 million in the next year, and is planning to target its work in a select group of states with legislative sessions in 2006.
“You all of a sudden just can’t have a 30-member staff and a $30 million budget,” PLAN co-chairman Steve Doherty said.
Tuesday’s meeting attracted legislators from around the country, who are attending the nonpartisan National Conference of State Legislatures annual convention in Seattle.
Democratic Missouri state Sen. Patrick Dougherty said the new policy group’s focus would help legislators feel they aren’t alone in critical policy battles at the statehouse.
“It helps us to reach a lot of Americans who, I think, feel forgotten by a lot of politicians,” he said.
More: WaPo/AP
It’s great that he’s doing this. I’d also like to hear him address legislation that is or will cause the growth of poverty: tax cuts for the wealthy, bankruptcy bill, NAFTA, CAFTA…address the issue of a corporate controlled Congress.
Screw the snarker — it speaks volumes about Edwards that this is how he spends his time after being out of office, he could have just as easily gone back to making boatloads of money as a lawyer, or staying out of the public eye completely as taking care of his wife. I think the both of them are sincere in their efforts on behalf of the poor.
I’m with you all the way, Brinnaine. They are REAL people who REALLY care.
It’s funny that the AP story in the WaPo doesn’t get into the presidential politics side of the story, but the local P.I. does. There’s more from the P.I., which has some interesting info and insights into the consultants’ minds:
I wish Edwards would run with Elizabeth as VP…she is great!
God yes! Was it 2003? During the prmiaries, C-SPAN featured Elizabeth speaking to groups in homes in NH. I was for Dean at the time, but I was blown away by Elizabeth. I watched C-SPAN’s coverage of Theresa Kerry too, and found her very fascinating and thoughtful.
Elizabeth, however, comes across as more straightforward and just plain real.
I admire Teresa and her ah, cojones, but Elizabeth is just so real, so relaxed and easy to like. A welcome change from, say, Laura and Lynn and Barbara and Nancy and Hilary and…
And we haven’t even mentioned her brains.
I’d bet she’s as bright at Hillary (who I think is terribly bright). And she’s more accessible on a human level.
i think that’s Elizabeth’s secret weapon-she is very real, likable and this may lead some to greatly underestimate her. From what I’ve seen of her during the campaign and her being able to answer any question-serious questions with a complete grasp/knowledge of all the issues(without notes) certainly makes her the intellectual counterpart to her husband.
I’d like to see an Edwards/Bayh ticket for 2008. That way Edwards could really let loose, and have Bayh there to play the good cop/bad cop routine.
Having heard Edwards speak and having witnessed the way he connects with a crowd, I disagree with the experts cited above on Edwards’s chances in ’08. I attended the Tom Harkin picnic in 2003, where Edwards was one of six presidential candidates to appear onstage. I was not a supporter of his either before or after the event, but both my companion that day and I agree without question that Edwards had the most charisma of any of the presidential hopefuls present–and that day’s field included Kerry and Dean. The 2004 debacle convinced me that the Democrats absolutely must win in 2008. If we are to be successful, we simply must nominate a candidate with charisma and natural appeal. Although many of us love Hillary, the truth is that she lacks her husband’s ability to connect with an audience on a visceral level. Edwards has it. And although he has some baggage coming out of ’04, he also has a number of additional strengths: a terrific wife, a compelling personal story, Southern roots, and a riveting populist message. As for the “one Senate term” argument–lest we forget, George W. Bush spent exactly the same number of years as a state governor that Edwards spent in the Senate. Add to that the fact that he’s nobody’s fool and almost universal name recognition, and Edwards emerges as a potentially formidable force for 2008.
And let us not forget that Edwards was pressing for an investigation into the blatant vote fraud in Ohio and Florida… And that it was Kerry (and a large number of the “pragmatists”) that delivered that victory to the enemy.
Good memory, great point!
Who wrote about that … the sort-of-a fight that Edwards and Kerry had? Newsweek?
Edwards REMEMBERED the campaign’s PROMISES.
If Edwards talks about poverty and a reporter isn’t around to hear it, does he make a sound?
Edwards never stopped talking about class issues, whether or not the media deigned to notice. Does that mean he’s always campaigning … or that it’s always something he actually cares about?
(Okay, maybe some of both. But that sort of poseur cynical attitude in a newspaper report is obnoxious.)
It’d be so great it someone would diary this — noticed it yesterday in Amy Goodman’s headlines:
Swell. As Anatole France said, “The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.”
Somehow, though, I suspect that this won’t be used against corporate CEO’s hitting the city and state up for mondo tax breaks and such. After all, that’s not begging, that’s lobbying.
So, the people least able to pay will be fined. And pressures on the average person will only increase with the bankruptcy revisions, etc. Legislators are sooo out of touch.
If they’re homeless, how the hell will they pay the fine? What will they do, keep them locked up until they can pay?
Idiots.
Ah, nice news to wake up to! They can stuff the snark, he’s doing good and I don’t care why, it’s enough that he’s working on the problems!
source: SalonWarRoom
Cindy Sheehan is picking up support today from another woman who knows what it’s like to lose a son. In an email to supporters, Elizabeth Edwards, whose son Wade was killed in a car accident in 1996, says that it is time for George W. Bush to listen to whatever message Cindy Sheehan wants to deliver. …
Meant to also link NLinStPaul’s diary, “Elizabeth Edwards to Cindy“
I also added a link to sign the petition Elizabeth has put out for supporting Cindy.
His message about the poor will have legs.
First, the poor include a great many of the low-activity, easily discouraged voters that Dean says we should target.
Second, the way the economy’s going, most every issue related to protecting and increasing opportunity for them also applies to the middle and upper middle class.
This economy is becoming a real demon–it was the economy that gave us Bushco, not the other way around. Because of the increasing efficiency of the economy at concentrating wealth for the owners while leaking less and less to everyone else, “mainstream” and upper end Democrats are more fully in the boat with ostensibly disadvantaged populations, minorities etc. than we seem to appreciate. Especially looking at trends into the future.
But the days are over when we can ask “them” for their “support.” We need to make them part of “us,” certain they’re going to benefit from joining with us. Frankly we need to join with them as much as the other way round.
Edwards is one of the only Democrats on this project and I’m keeping my eye on him. I agree that he’s very underrated as a speaker.
I’m glad he’s joining up with the SEIU to help security guards, who make very poor wages … and I’ve always imagined that that must be a rather boring, dreary job. 🙁
SEIU .. I wonder if Howard Dean has had any role in that hook-up. Dean and SEIU’s Andy Stern were so close during the primaries.
I’d bet that UNITE-HERE played a role in this, seeing as they supported Edwards in the primary, and are part of the Change to Win Coallition. I’m suspcious myself of Stern and the SEIU, but I’m very, very pleased to see Edwards marhcing with union members. I really hope John Edwards runs in 2008.
I was able to ask John Edwards a question about industrial hemp for Vote Hemp at the College Convention 2004. He had previously been asked a similar question in New Hampshire. Here is a brief story about the exchange. He and his staff kept his promise. They actually called me on Sunday night and asked where we wanted the answers sent to make the promised Monday deadline. I was impressed, especially considering the other candidates records of keeping their promises.
That first snarky lead-in by reporter proves to me again why so many reporters are assholes. Edwards has been going out and talking about this issue since the election almost constantly except for the time during Elizabeth’s chemo treatments,etc. And not just talking but actively working to get minimum wage raised federally or in the states. I signed up for their emails shortly after the election and it’s obvious how dedicated he and Elizabeth both are to this issue and many others.
As mentioned by bearpaw in the first post, if Edwards talks about poverty and no reporters are listening does he make a sound…about sums it up.
I’ll have to take another look at Edwards. I just couldn’t warm up to him at all during the 2004 election cycle, and I couldn’t figure out why. Possibly just because it was such a tense time and I was reluctantly supporting the Kerry ticket. Well, and as a friend from NY also mentioned… “Southern accent”. Although I hope it wasn’t that, very bad reflection on me if so (I quite like many Southern accents, by the way).
However, if he’s standing up for the poor, and other progressive ideals, he’ll never get the full support of the DC establishment Dems and others, so to make any headway at all before 2008, he’ll need a lot of grassroots generated excitement and support.
I fully agree on the targeting of state legislatures (and school boards and such) and any and everything, from the state and county level up too. That’s imperative.
You know, I think we should take him at his word and be concerned about poverty ourselves, and concerned to make sure it gets prominent position on the Democrat agenda. And leave candidates and their personalities aside for now. If that’s all we think about, then campaigns and elections will mean so much less to the future.