Text 29225, 94 rader
Skriven 2007-07-08 20:55:00 av Jeff Binkley (1:226/600)
Ärende: Edwards
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This is a new low in hypocrisy, even for a liberal democrat.....

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http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0707/Edwards_to_announce_poverty_
tour.html

July 08, 2007
Read More: John Edwards

Edwards to announce poverty tour


Can JRE pull off a JFK, or an RFK? John Edwards plans to announce Monday 
that he’ll take a break from fund-raising and campaigning in early-
voting states next week for a three-day, eight-state, 12-city “Road to 
One Americaö tour aimed at calling attention to poverty in the deep 
South, the Mississippi Delta, Appalachia and the Rust Belt. The campaign 
points out that none of the states he’ll visit has an early 2008 
primary, and says Edwards won’t be doing rallies.

Instead, TV viewers will see Edwards in coal country, Edwards in a 
factory, Edwards on a farm, Edwards in a struggling neighborhood, 
Edwards in a school, Edwards in a health care clinic. “It’s an effort to 
show the rest of the country how 37 million Americans live their lives 
in poverty every single day,ö an Edwards aide said. “It’s not only their 
workplaces -- it’s their homes and the places they get health care.ö

The photogenic swing is reminiscent of John F. Kennedy’s repeated coal-
country campaigning before the West Virginia primary of 1960. His 
overwhelming victory ended Catholicism as an issue in the campaign and 
brought national attention to Appalachian poverty. Twenty-eight years 
later, Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis donned a hard hat and 
overalls for an hour-long tour of a West Virginia coal mine.

“By telling their stories to the rest of the nation, the tour will 
attempt to shed light on the new faces of poverty in America,ö the 
Edwards campaign says in an announcement document. The former U.S. 
senator from North Carolina has a plan for “ending poverty in America 
within a generationö that includes an increase in the minimum wage, 
investments in rural community colleges, creation of 1 million short-
term “stepping stoneö jobs, and a program to encourage responsible 
fatherhood and fight teen pregnancy.

Edwards has been putting a new emphasis on his message of economic 
fairness as a way to make himself more than the anti-war candidate. He 
also wants to mop up union endorsements and get more traction among 
lower-income, working voters without a college education. But he’s so 
wealthy that he has struggled to mold a populist image.

Stop-by-stop information (along with a snide aside and an explanation of 
the RFK reference) after the jump.

Edwards will start next Sunday, July 15, with a walking tour of the 
Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans. The three-day tour will officially 
begin the next day in New Orleans with a town hall in conjunction with 
ABC’s “Good Morning America,ö where he’ll kick off the day’s theme of 
“Rewarding Work and Ending Poverty in America.ö Then he’ll head to 
Canton, Miss.; Marks, Miss.; Marianna, Ark.; and Memphis, Tenn., where 
he’ll give the first of two speeches.

On Tuesday, July 16, he’ll take his theme of “Strengthening 
Neighborhoods and Cities Risingö to Cleveland; Youngstown, Ohio, where 
he’ll give the second speech; and Pittsburgh.

The finale will be Wednesday, July, 18, with a theme of “Restoring Hope 
to Rural America.ö He’ll stop in isolated southwest Virginia, then will 
end in Whitesburg, Ky., and Prestonsburg, Ky. That's the same 
Prestonsburg that was the final public stop by Robert F. Kennedy in 1968 
on HIS iconic poverty tour.

P.S. In Maureen Dowd’s essential Sunday account of an interview with 
Edwards about his tastes in books, music, TV and actors (“Phantom At The 
Opera: He likes his culture with a drawlö),  print she quotes the former 
senator as saying: “Elizabeth thinks the two rules you always use in 
politics are: Don’t dance. And don’t wear hats.ö Ms. Dowd adds: 
“Especially not if you’ve got such a fabulous haircut to show off.ö And 
we might add: Tough to stick to in coal country.

UPDATE: In response to a comment below from reader SRB, who challenged 
the use of "overwhelming," here are the 1960 West Virginia primary 
results: 60.8 percent for Kennedy, to 39.2 percent for Hubert H. 
Humphrey of Minnesota. See the whole chart here.

The general election, probably what SRB was thinking of, was one of the 
closest in history -- 49.7 percent for Kennedy to 49.5 percent for one 
Richard Milhous Nixon of California.


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