Edwards's Theme: U.S. Poverty (Wall Street Journal)

[JohnLocke]

Edwards's Theme: U.S. Poverty
Amid Iraq Talk, White House Hopeful Sticks to '04 Issue in '08 Run
By Jackie Calmes--The Wall Street Journal
December 28, 2006
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For the roughly two dozen candidates considering a run for the White House, it is perhaps the jackpot question: What might be the winning message in a contest whose first nominating vote is still more than a year away?

Today, former Sen. John Edwards begins testing his hunch that Americans, though focused now on the war in Iraq, can be won over to a campaign built on what he calls "the great moral issue of our time" -- fighting poverty at home. He plans to do so with an unorthodox announcement of his candidacy, not standing on a flag-draped stage, but volunteering his labor in New Orleans's Lower Ninth Ward, which is still struggling to recover from Hurricane Katrina.
The North Carolina Democrat's theme of ending the "Two Americas" of haves and have-nots dates to his 2004 presidential bid. Mr. Edwards didn't win his party's nomination then, but his strong reception among voters helped him to secure a place as Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry's running mate. Mr. Edwards argues that the disparity between the richest Americans and the working class has widened since then.
"When I talked about poverty in the 2004 campaign, political types said it was futile," he said in a speech this year. "They said nobody cares about poverty except for the poor. Not true, and we saw it with Katrina."
(...)
Yet as Mr. Edwards has suggested in speeches, his antipoverty theme is broader than helping Katrina's victims. He speaks of "the forgotten middle class" and of workers generally, who have seen their wages stagnate and benefits erode. He will expand on that message in coming days, seeking to take advantage of the slow-news holidays with a post-announcement tour of early primary and caucus states that could quickly decide both parties' nominees. Mr. Edwards is set to jet to Iowa, then crisscross the nation to New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina before ending Saturday in his home state, North Carolina. He plans to host town-hall-style events at each stop.
(...)
In that speech, he set a national goal of ending poverty in 30 years for the 37 million Americans living below the poverty line, lifting one-third of them above it in each of the next three decades. His "Working Society" agenda would mean a higher federal minimum wage, reduced taxes for low-income workers, universal health care, and one million new housing vouchers for working families, to help them find homes in neighborhoods with better schools.
Mr. Edwards proposes "Work Bonds" to provide tax credits to match low-wage workers' own long-term savings. He calls for the government to partner with nonprofit organizations to create a million "stepping stone" jobs, to help welfare recipients and others get experience on local projects so they can go on to better-paying private-sector jobs. And he would open "second-chance schools" aimed at the increased number of high-school students who drop out before graduating.
Mindful of the current headlines, however, Mr. Edwards has paired his domestic agenda with a call to immediately reduce U.S. forces in Iraq by at least 40,000. And he has taken pains to put his domestic vision in a global context. As he put it at the National Press Club six months ago: "How we work to improve our country and lift people up is also critical to restoring American leadership in the world."
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Read the rest here.

[Erika]

1. Yes John Edwards for President

Hoping for an Edwards/Obama ticket.

100% perfect. Hope, enthusiasm, optimism.

[juajen]

2. I like that man's style!

Go, Johnny, Go!

[snowbear]

11. Yeah... and he actually breaks a sweat !

Bush carrys the same two pieces of brush about 3' each year.. just long enough for them to snap the annual photo. If his t-shirt is wet, it's because they hose him down just prior to snapping the photo I bet.



.......

[Gloria]

3. Good, practical and worthy goals.....

[JohnLocke]

4. Kick (nt).

[KKKarl is an idiot]

5. Good message

[The2ndWheel]

6. A 30 year plan

Far too impressive. So the two thirds that are still poor in a decade, along with the people who are still in poverty from the one third before the decade is up, sorry.

"to help them find homes in neighborhoods with better schools."

But shouldn't every neighborhood have better schools? Why would they need to leave if we're fixing poverty? Oh, wait, 30 years.

I'm sure it'll work perfectly. Which it would have to, if we're going to fix poverty.

[Strawman]

8. I suspect he will ram as much through as he can while the oportunity is there

But you have a point. A movement should have 30 year plans. A president or a majority party have much smaller windows of opportunity and they should sieze them, esepcially rare chances to expand social benefits. Once you get them in place, you can always tweak and reform them and they are difficult for conservatives to totally repeal. The hard part is getting them in place. Given the economic anxiety in this country and the fact that wages for most workers have been essentially flat since 1970, I think the next Democratic president will have a chance to create some new committments to enhance or at least somewhat restore economic opportunity.

[Strawman]

7. Edwards is winning me over

I like his committment to bread and butter issues his charisma, and his capacity to make change happen. He has the big ideas right and he has a sense of what it's going to take to make it actually happen in a practical sense.

Too may of the other candidates only seem to have one or the other: either committment, charisma or capacity. Edwards, I think, has all three.

[DeepModem Mom]

9. K&R

[JohnLocke]

10. Kick (nt).