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John P. Gregg
Valley News
May 21, 2007
Lebanon -- Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards yesterday called for fellow Democrats in Congress to stand by a timetable for withdrawal of American troops in Iraq, despite a veto and continued opposition from President Bush.
"I don't think Congress should back down. We should stand our ground," Edwards said during a campaign rally at Colburn Park in downtown Lebanon. "The fact that we have a bullheaded, stubborn president who thinks he can do nothing wrong makes it more important, more imperative, that we stand our ground. We need to stand our ground against this president. We cannot negotiate (with him)."
Democrats yesterday dropped any calls for a timetable in a war funding bill, but Edwards said voters in last November's election "gave a clear signal, and in fact a mandate, to the Congress, and that mandate was we want a different (direction) in Iraq. We want America to leave Iraq."
The former North Carolina senator and 2004 Democratic vice presidential nominee drew frequent applause from a crowd of almost 300, and also pledged to change the United States' image around the world, saying he would do more to combat genocide in Darfur and the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa, and close the military detainee center at Guantanamo Bay the first day he was president.
"The world thinks we are a bully -- they think we are at war with the Muslim world," Edwards said. "That has to change."
He also detailed several of his domestic policy planks, including fighting poverty through such means as providing a living wage, expanding the earned-income tax credit, creating more housing vouchers and boosting financial assistance for college students.
Edwards also said his health care plan, requiring employers to cover workers or pay into a fund, would be mandatory but would also provide universal coverage. He said it would cost between $90 billion and $120 billion a year to subsidize, which he would do by repealing Bush-era tax cuts for households making more than $200,000 a year.
And he also said the United States has to be aggressive in fighting global warming, by capping carbon emissions, investing in alternative fuels and conserving more energy.
"This is serious business," Edward said of global warming and the importance of conservation. "We have to be willing to be patriotic about something other than war."
Some attendees, though still uncommitted, applauded the specificity of the responses from Edwards, who earlier in the day campaigned at Earl Bourdon Senior Centre in Claremont and at an event in Keene.
"I thought he gave a very compelling speech," said Dr. Mark Splaine, a physician who lives in Lebanon. "Very strong and clear on the issues Not the high lofty goals, but being very clear and specific. It at least gives a map of where he might go, which I think is very helpful."
"I think he was willing to come out and say how he felt about the issues, and I think that was important," added state Rep. Gene Andersen, a Lebanon Democrat whose top priority is the environment. "A lot of times, with politicians, what they want to do is tell a story rather than answer a question, and I think he was willing to answer questions today, so I felt good about that."
But Hanover resident Patricia Higgins, who asked Edwards to discuss what executive experience he would bring to the White House, said she was still leaning toward New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who previously served as U.N. ambassador and secretary of energy.
Edwards told Higgins that he had executive experience from his years as a lawyer and from creating a poverty center in North Carolina, and also said such attributes as vision and integrity were important for a president. That didn't close the sale for Higgins.
"Richardson is the only person I see who has had real responsibility for enacting policy," Higgins said. "(Edwards) is a beautiful speaker, he speaks from the heart and head, really very, very effectively -- (but) he doesn't have the experience of running something. None of the senators I know of do."
Q&A: Educational Disparity
John Edwards answers a question about educational disparity at Hanover Middle School in Hanover, N.H. on September 27, 2007
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© 2006 John Edwards for President, 410 Market Street, Suite 400, Chapel Hill, NC 27516
