Welcome to a special MyDD version of the Edwards Evening News! A lot going on, with Elizabeth blogging tonight over at DailyKos and answering people's questions. And also as I type, house parties in support of John Edwards around the country are just wrapping up. Follow me over the flap to see "what's going on".
Elizabeth you Rock!
Elizabeth visited Dailykos tonight and has been taking questions. For more, go check it out. Here's some of what she said.
I don't take anything for granted
But I feel great about Iowa. They look for a candidate with a constellation of qualities: character, vision (as exhibited by fully formed ideas) and (because they are pragmatic) electability. John meets all their criteria and, in addition, he is well-liked in the state. The Iowa team has done a great job of organizing so we are ready. I am convinced John will win Iowa and the only question (which I do not know) is the percentage.
A President who thinks US jobs is part of his job
Wouldn't that be great? No more weak-as-water trade agreements and an aggressive effort to strengthen businesses here matched with an end to any tax advantages for taking US jobs overseas: that's what we need and that's what we'll get with John.
Smart Trade
John opposed NAFTA (which was passed before he was in the Senate) and other trade bills that did not have a baseline of worker and environmental protections. He believes that all our trade agreements without these (which may be nearly all) need to be renegotiated and that no new trade agreements should be entered into that do not guarantee a reasonable (for each locality) wage, worker safety protections and environmental protections.
About rebuking Bush's abuse of executive power and restoring constitutional balance:
Most Democratic candidates will promise this
But think for a minute about who has been the most out-spoken, the most courageous speaker on these (and other) issues. It is John. The strength you see in the campaign is a hint about what you will see in the White House.
About John's long history of fighting to end poverty:
Long before he went into politics, John was on the board of an organization that addressed homelessness in our hometown, and he established the development fund for that organization, Urban Ministries. He and his firm did Christmas every year at a child care center in the projects, providing a party and presents for all the children. On alternating years, John was even (a thin) Santa. He made sure there was a children's library in the new public library in the rural town in which his parents were raised. He paid for a playground at a Title I school when the school system wouldn't update it and the PTA couldn't afford to. And we built a computer lab at our inner city high school (that serves the most economically advantaged and most economically disadvantaged students in the district) so that all students would start from a level playing field. I've got more, but isn't that proof enough?
About some in Congress not standing up to Bush:
Disappointing
It is disappointing. I don't know enough who to blame. We clearly need leadership. I spoke at a Rage for Justice dinner recently and that is what we need: leaders who will rage for justice. The Iraq vote was an example. Even those who voted the right way didn't exhibit the leadership we need right now. Silence, as MLK said, is betrayal.
Iowa, Nevada, NH, SC
I feel great about the calendar. I wouldn't want John to trade places with any other candidate. (It would be nice to have their money -- hint, hint -- but John needs only to meet his budget, not their totals.) Iowa looks great, I talked about it earlier. Nevada will do Iowa style caucuses, which means that the most engaged voters will be participating and those are the ones who demand character, vision, fully developed plans, and electability. John should do great. John has run 2d or 3d in NH in polling and with the wins in Iowa and Nevada will, I believe, win NH as well. And John won in SC in 2004 with 45% without a win before that. With the earlier wins, John will repeat in SC. I feel great about this.
About priorities and the deficit:
Priorities
With John we will have a President who can walk and chew gum at the same time, and he can address several of the important issues at the same time as well. Global warming, which you asked about, has to be an immediate concern. This is an emergency, but so are the other things I talked about in earlier comments: health care, re-establishing our moral leadership. And eradicating poverty is not a niche issue or a luxury. Poverty drains our economic and social resources, it paralyzes our city services and it causes our rural communities to wither. The costs of poverty radiate far beyond the lives of those in poverty. But we need to address it primarily because it is wrong.
About public financing of elections:
Clean up and reinvigorate our election system
On two fronts:
(1) Public financing of campaigns. John has never taken Washington lobbyist money (or allowed them to bundle for him) but that is not enough. He will fight for true public financing.
(2) A reliable voting system nationwide. That means from voter enrollment, voter eligibility determinations, and actual voting processes. No black boxes and a paper trail for all voting.
About the vital importance of health care:
You think about who is election is about
I talk about this all the time. About Mary who went back to work at 75 to pay for prescription drugs she could have afforded . . . if she lived it Canada. She was lovely; I met her in Iowa. About Beverly, who I met in Detroit, who could hardly speak, so consumed was she with worry for her son in Iraq. And the pretty young woman who leaned over me in Cleveland and whispered in my ear that she was afraid; she had found a lump in her breast but couldn't go to the doctor's because she had no health insurance. She has a death sentence if we don't get her health care. It is not only easy to keep going, it is impossible to stop.
About making health care a priority:
This is a top priority
John will move immediately on his health care plan. With him at the top of the ticket, I believe we take enough new seats that he will have no problem getting it passed right away.
Ha! We don't have any speechwriters.
Refreshing, isn't it?
About people who like Elizabeth but aren't yet sold on John:
What you like about me
I would guess is that I am authentic and talk about great ideas -- those, by the way, are John's ideas.
This campaign is about real change for America, transformational change away from where Bush has been taking us on his roller-coaster ride of incompetence and shortsightedness. Its much more than about an individual, its aabout a vision of America with hope restored, with universal health care, where the crush of poverty becomes a fairytale that noone believes really existed, and where the world can openly look up to us instead of snickering at our hypocrasy. Do you support change? Are you willing to stand up?
If you do, then drop some small change for big change Edwards way and join the campaign. Help Edwards and all progressive candidates out by through ActBue: Artists for Edwards or click on the cool bell (this is where things stand now):
Tomorrow begins Today!
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