John Edwards for President-Elizabeth's On The Trail, Too

Elizabeth's On The Trail, Too

May 1, 2007 9:00 AM

Chelsea Conboy
Concord Monitor
May 1, 2007

Edwards's campaign mirrors her husband's

Take out the often-cited introduction "John says" and it might seem Elizabeth Edwards is running for president.

In her third visit to New Hampshire this year, the wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards spoke to voters in Manchester, in Concord and on the Seacoast yesterday about her husband's proposals for instituting universal health care and for combating global poverty and terrorism. She presented them as thoroughly as he does.

Where other candidate spouses have focused on shedding a personal light on their would-be president, Edwards has taken a different role.

She replaces his stories of growing up the Baptist son of a mill worker in South Carolina with her own history. Spending an average of four days on the campaign trail each week and the others working from the couple's North Carolina home, she talks about the same things her husband does - the issues she believes people care about.

She said there have been wives of candidates in the past who have said, "My husband's a great guy. My state's an important state. We've been married a long time and he's really nice to his grandkids.

"It's not that I'm not willing to do that," she said. "I'd just as soon use my time in front of people to talk about issues that are important to voters."

For her, she said, being informed comes easier than being charming.

Supporters often talk about the Edwardses as a package deal. In a press conference announcing his support last week, New Hampshire Sen. Peter Burling of Cornish said, "I think this couple can bring the country back together."

Edwards said she recognizes that news of her breast cancer metastasizing has "increased her profile."

But in response to well-wishers' promise that they would pray for her in her time of illness, she said, "Save a little time in that prayer for (Justice John Paul Stevens' health) because we certainly need to ensure those seats are not filled with more Justice (Samuel) Alitos," during a stop at the law firm Rath, Young and Pignatelli's Concord office.

Later, she said she's wary of too much attention.

"I think a spouse is a window into" the candidate, she said. "If you stop and look at the window, you kind of miss the point."

Edwards conceded that New York Sen. Hillary Clinton's spouse may have her beat on political "fluency."

While former president Bill Clinton is fundraising elsewhere, he hasn't been to New Hampshire since last summer. He will be in the state to speak at the May 19 University of New Hampshire commencement, along with former president George H.W. Bush. Kathleen Strand, spokeswoman for Hillary Clinton, said she didn't know if he would make any campaign stops that weekend.

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's wife, Michelle, campaigned here once last month.

Dante Scala, an associate professor of political science at St. Anselm College, said, Bill Clinton aside, Edwards is "the exception to the rule" of the traditional spousal role of talking about the candidate's character "and not much else." That could appeal to voters who cheer her independence.

But, he said, "the voters ultimately vote for the candidates."

Edwards said that when she's not campaigning with her husband, which she prefers, she talks with him up to a dozen times a day about policy issues, their three children and each other.

During a speech at Southern New Hampshire University earlier in the day, Edwards reeled off a list of foreign policy issues to address.

"We need to continue securing Afghanistan. We need to withdraw from Iraq. We need to engage more in Israel . . . We need to establish a nonproliferation treaty that is negotiable."

She confronted the idea that universal health care could be implemented at no cost, saying, "It's going to cost money to do these things, but it's in our long-term interests."

However, when one voter brought up the issue of sex education, for which her husband hasn't introduced policy initiatives, Edwards was less direct. She told a story of bringing up a teenage son who would laugh with his friends at any mention of a woman's breast until she made them sit and say as many words for the body part they could think of. At the first mention of "jugs" they all laughed. But by the 17th round, it wasn't so funny, she said.

"I have not talked to John about exactly what his ideas are, and since my ideas don't matter in the long run, I prefer to defer that," she said.

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