Edwards Evening News Roundup: Tenacity Rules Edition
by cosbo
Wed Jan 16, 2008 at 07:41:55 PM PDT
- cosbo's diary :: ::
Yay! for 1,500 people who bypassed the programmed media blackout and glanced pass the celebrity glitz.
MORE THAN 1,500 SUPPORTERS GREET JOHN EDWARDS AT RENO EVENT
Following a strong debate performance, Edwards holds town hall meetings across Nevada on second day of “Standing with Working Families” tour
Reno, Nevada – Following a strong debate performance last night in Las Vegas, today Senator John Edwards was welcomed at a town hall meeting in Reno by a crowd of more than 1,500 supporters. Edwards’ event at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno took place during the second day of his “Standing with Working Families” Nevada tour, during which Edwards is highlighting his plans to stand up for the middle class and fight for hard-working families across America.
Born to working class parents and raised in small, rural towns, John Edwards understands the values and struggles of hard-working families. He has been fighting for regular Americans like the ones he grew up with his entire life, and he’ll keep fighting for them as president.
“If you've been watching the national media for the last year you might have thought there were only two candidates, but if you watched the debate last night you saw there are actually three,” Edwards said at the Reno town hall meeting. “Only one of these candidates has never taken a dime from Washington lobbyists and PACs. Only one beats every single Republican candidate in head to head match-ups. Only one will have no corporate lobbyists in White House.
“The cause of my life is fighting for working people and the middle class who are being held back by powerful entrenched interests,” Edwards continued. “Middle class families across the country are working harder than ever today, but still struggling to make ends meet. To help hard-working families in Nevada and across America get ahead, we need a president who will fight for universal health care, smarter trade policies and a new energy economy. And to get real change, we need a president with the strength and conviction to stand up against the big corporations and powerful interests who control Washington.”
Edwards will continue to campaign in Nevada tomorrow and Friday as part of a coast-to-coast trip to bring his fight for the middle class to states from the West Coast to the Heartland to the East Coast. Over the course of the next three days, Edwards will visit Nevada, California, Oklahoma, Missouri, Georgia and his native state of South Carolina to share with voters his detailed plans to stand up to the powerful interests and make sure hard-working families can get ahead.
2.Edwards Discusses Bold Plans To Strengthen Our Economy And Help Hard-Working Families
The fight for the middle class continues. Edwards is nothing but tenacious and relentlessly on message. The same message that he began his campaign with...making America better for EVERYBODY. Yes, you included.
On Day Two of "Standing with Working Families" tour, Edwards discusses stimulus plan, as well as policies to help homeowners and curb credit card abuses
Reno, Nevada – At a town hall today in Reno, Nevada, John Edwards will call on Nevadans to join him in his fight to give working and middle class families a voice in Washington. On the second day of his "Standing with Working Families" tour, Edwards will discuss his plan to take on the powerful corporate interests standing in the way of change and strengthen our economy, so working and middle class families have the chance to get ahead. Edwards' trip comes as he is gaining strength in Nevada leading up to the caucuses. Polls showing him moving up and staff, supporters and volunteers, along with the Carpenters, Steelworkers, Transport Workers and Communication Workers,have been hard at work making phone calls and knocking on doors to spread Edwards' message. Later in the day, Edwards will echo his remarks at a town hall in Las Vegas and will visit with steelworkers and Nevada veterans.
Edwards will outline his $100 billion jobs package and renew his call for immediate Congressional action to create jobs and strengthen the economy. Edwards will also strengthen our economy and help families by ending the housing crisis and helping save families' homes, cracking down on abusive lending practices, raising the minimum wage, making it easier for workers to join unions and enacting trade policies that put the interests of workers first.
"Today, too many working families in Nevada are struggling with debt and facing skyrocketing costs of everything from health care to education to gas," said Edwards. "Meanwhile, big corporate interests are getting every break imaginable from Washington. Working families need a president who will stand up for them, not big corporate interests. I've been fighting these interests my entire life, and I know that together we can take our country back."
Born to a working family and raised in small, rural towns, Edwards knows firsthand the struggles facing working families. He has spent his entire life standing up to powerful interests on behalf of families like the ones he grew up with. As president, Edwards will stand up for working families by:
Urging Congress to Take Action and Pass an Economic Stimulus Plan: To provide a much-needed boost to a weakening economy, Edwards' economic stimulus plan calls for investing in clean energy infrastructure, increasing federal aid to help states avoid cutting programs that help families through hard times, reforming unemployment insurance and tackling the housing crisis.
Ending the Housing Crisis and Saving Families' Homes: Nevada has the highest foreclosure rate in the country. Edwards will (1) halt foreclosures until lenders take concrete steps to avoid defaults, (2) create a Home Rescue Fund to help families move into affordable mortgages, and (3) allow bankruptcy judges to rewrite mortgages on family homes. Edwards will also prevent future crises by passing a strong national law against predatory lending.
Reigning in Credit Card and Other Abusive Debt: Edwards will require credit card companies to disclose the true cost of making only minimum payments; restore a 10-day grace period before imposing late fees and penalty rates; apply interest rate increases to future balances only, and end the practice of "universal default." Edwards will also create a new consumer watchdog agency – the Family Savings and Credit Commission – whose sole purpose will be to crack down on these and other kinds of predatory consumer credit practices.
Rewarding Work, not Just Wealth: Edwards will reward work by raising the minimum wage by 75 cents a year until it reaches $9.50 in 2012, and then index it to so that it automatically rises each year along with average wages. He will also reward work with stronger unions, universal health care, Stepping Stone jobs and smart trade policies that put the interests of workers and families, not multinational corporations, first.
3. Still Voting For John Edwards
Props to another stubborn Edwards supporter. Check out the rest of the article...I couldn't have said it better myself.
I'm voting for John Edwards in the February 5th California primary. I'm more certain of this now than ever before. I'm told that my continued support for Edwards's candidacy, like the candidacy itself, is either an egomaniacal fool's errand, racist, a betrayal of the Democratic party, or all of the above.
I'm even told the candidate who espouses the progressive politics I hold dear is grounding Senator Obama's ascendancy. While I don't pretend to speak for everyone who supports John Edwards for President, I can say that if Edwards jumps off the ballot before California, Barack Obama is not, at present, my second choice. Anyway, Edwards's continued presence in the race is keeping everyone honest.
Edwards has sharpened his '04 pitch into a more pointed indictment of those responsible for the widening gulf between the Two Americas. Edwards paired his critique with a set of policy proposals that are in line with the progressive agenda (with the shameful exception of same sex marriage, but I've no doubt Elizabeth Edwards will right his ship on that one). The proposals are more generally liberal and forward thinking than any other candidate taller than 4'5".
Further, Edwards staked out positions on Health Care, on the Environment, on Education, before both Obama and Clinton. He has already had a measurable impact on the Democratic party, by showing the big money candidates that not only would it be okay for them to advocate UHC and the like, it would be politically dangerous for them to hold out much longer. He did it first, and he did it best (the MSM myth of indistinguishable differences between the candidates is shattered by actually reading the materials respective campaigns have written). The next president will not have the luxury of a campaign competitor to test the waters or think up creative new initiatives to push them to keep up.
No matter if you attribute Edwards's rhetorical evolution to political expediency or political maturity. The fact is, he is where he is now, and he has grabbed the establishment of the party with both hands and pulled it along (Hillary Clinton referred directly to corporate interests in her victory speech in NH for the first time I've heard her do so in a major address.)
Yet I am still told that Edwards' campaign, only seven pledge delegates behind the leader after only two primary contests, is an exercise in vanity. I am told by voices on this site that Edwards supporters are delusional and are feeding a power hungry Naderite's elephant sized ego. I am told that all must hop aboard the Obama train to stop the Clinton machine. Or, alternately, join with Hillary to save the economy and country from 'Bama the Kid. Above all, whomever you choose, get away from that crazy man!
Yet another backbone afflicted Edwards supporter. More props. One can only hope the rest of California is listening.
Last night I spoke to the Sierra Foothills Democratic Club in El Dorado Hill on behalf of John Edwards. Below is what I told them.
Thank you, Sierra Foothills Democratic Club for inviting me to speak on behalf of Senator John Edwards. If you get all your news and information from mainstream media you may not have heard about it yet, but Senator Edwards is running for President of the United States.
I probably over thought what I could tell you about Senator Edwards this evening. I could tell you about his plan for universal health care that puts us on the road to a single payer system. I could talk about his plan to immediately withdraw between forty and fifty thousand combat troops from Iraq. I could talk about his support for middle-class families and working Americans. His education proposals may interest some of you, and his energy plan works toward energy independence and fights global warming. I could also spend some time talking about his plan to revitalize rural America.
Sure, I could bore you with the details of Senator Edwards’ bold initiatives, but, if you get your news from alternative media sources, you’ve likely heard them — or something similar to them — already. You see, each of the Presidential candidates also have plans that are similar to Senator Edwards’. On the issues, there is little difference between the candidates.
The difference is, Senator Edwards proposed his plans before any of the other candidates, and many of the details of his plans were incorporated into their plans. If imitation is truly the sincerest form of flattery... well, John should be flattered.
Senator Edwards’ plans are nothing new. They are Democratic Party principles put to pen and paper and laid out before the American people. They are bold, honest plans to lead America forward.
You can read the details of his "bold solutions for real change" at www.johnedwards.com.
Now that I have not told you briefly about Senator Edwards’ plan, I would like spend the remainder of my time telling you why I support him. People ask me, "why support someone who the media ignores, isn’t polling with the ‘front runners,’ and doesn’t appear to be able to win?"
Edwards on his chances in NV.
LAS VEGAS - Hours before a televised debate, presidential hopeful John Edwards said Tuesday he liked his chances in union-strong Nevada, despite a key endorsement for rival Sen. Barack Obama and a lawsuit that could throw a wrench into the tight Jan. 19 caucus race.
Edwards, in his first visit to Nevada since December, shrugged off the endorsement by the 60,000-member Culinary Workers Union, and his campaign said he had amassed support from national unions that have 28,000 workers here.
"I think union support is relatively evenly divided here in Nevada," Edwards said outside a restaurant where he greeted supporters. "I've got carpenters and steelworkers and transit workers. They'll work hard for me."
That tenacity again. Edwards is going all the way to the convention. He's not giving up and neither will we. At the end of the day, win or lose, we know that we supported the most progressive, the most electable candidate for the general election. Come November our hands will be clean.
BETHANY — Democratic presidential contender John Edwards, looking for his first primary victory, said Tuesday he is in the race "for the long haul.”
"We're accumulating delegates at every single election,” said Edwards, who finished second in Iowa's caucuses and third in New Hampshire's primary.
"Two states have voted. There are 48 states left to vote. Less than 1 percent of the American people have voted yet. And I think we have had too much in America of people's voices not being heard in elections.”
Edwards arrived in a private jet about noon Tuesday at Wiley Post Airport for a refueling stop on his way from South Carolina to Tuesday night's debate in Nevada.
Accompanied by his daughter, Cate, 25, he spoke with reporters in the lobby of Atlantic Aviation.
Edwards, who has made several stops in Oklahoma the past year, said he feels like he knows "a great deal about the problems that the people of Oklahoma are faced with.”
Oklahoma Democrats, who will go to the polls Feb. 5 in the state's presidential primary, want a candidate "who will fight for the middle class, somebody who's independent of the very monied interests in Washington,” said Edwards, who finished a close second in Oklahoma's presidential primary four years ago.
6. Accounts of Edwards Electoral Death Are Perhaps Premature
Stick around Edwards. It must be dawning on some people that Edwards dropping out of the race is the quick path to a Clinton coronation. Should Edwards drop out, it seems Clinton sucks up a big portion of them. Things that make you go hmmm. Some people should be careful of what they wish for.
It remains unclear to me that Edwards' supporters would go to Obama if Edwards dropped out, but the bottom line is simpler--there is no reason for Edwards to drop out. He's still in the running, and if he wants to choose which of the other candidates wins if he doesn't, walking into the convention with a block of delegates large enough to do it is the best way.
And Obama isn't Edwards--he is significantly to the right of Edwards and on the fight/compromise spectrum he is actually the most conciliatory of the three candidates. Edwards supporters want a fighter; that isn't Obama.
Edwards is alive and kicking, and a force to be reckoned with. There's no good reason for him to ever drop out of the nomination contest. Time for Obama supporters to tend to their own campaign, not to Edwards.
7. Blog roundup.
Edwards Shines with Voters while getting much less time in Debate by TomP
Why I am Boycotting MSNBC by TekBoss
Why Edwards Won The Nevada Debate by DuvalDem
Why I'm Contributing to Edwards This Friday (Part 2) by Rob in Vermont
After Stellar Debate, Edwards Returns to Bread and Butter Issues by RDemocrat
Democrats Win Debate, Russert Loses by coturnix
Help Elect John Edwards President, (And get a t-Shirt, or a lawn sign, or even a bumper sticker.) by asdjrocky
"I Do Not Favor Nuclear Energy" - John Edwards by edgery
John Edwards' Media Blackout--Data by Redstateresident
Maddow... Party, Power or Personality? w/Poll by AntKat
John Edwards: The Only Candidate Serious About Ending the War by priceman
UPDATED: Edwards Greeted By Large Crowd After Succesful Debate by be inspired
8. Edwards videos
Edwards on CNN today.
New Ad
John Edwards - The Media Blackout Candidate
About Friday...DON'T FORGET!
