John Edwards for President-Crowd pleaser

Crowd pleaser

Jul 29, 2007 10:01 AM

Eileen Hynes
Nashua Telegraph
Jul 29, 2007

NASHUA – While thunderstorms passed overhead, there was a feeling of electricity among those packed into the home of Latha and Krishna Mangipudi on Saturday.

Fanning themselves with "John Edwards '08" fliers, the perspiring crowd patiently waited for a visit from the democratic presidential candidate, one of 13 stops he and his wife, Elizabeth, were to make in New Hampshire this weekend.

Dressed in a traditional sari, Latha, along with her husband, Krishna, greeted guests and prepared for the former North Carolina senator. The Edwards campaign staff took shelter in the garage, registering 235 of the more than 250 people who showed up.

Filing inside, people took plates of samosas and chutney available in the kitchen, while draining the bottled water supply and carefully navigating around the display of their Hindu idols.

Ananth Chikkatur, a research fellow from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, hoped to ask Edwards about his thoughts on executive privilege and how he would define it in his presidency.

About 60 crammed into the living room, standing and even sitting on the floor, where Edwards would take center stage in front of the fireplace, flanked by Mangipudi family photographs. Before his arrival, the room was buzzing as attendees discussed their expectations of Edwards.

Kathleen McClaskey of Amherst believes his campaign did not have a strong enough policy on education.

"If we have to address poverty, we have to address literacy," she said, referring to Edwards' emphasis on closing the gap between the richest and poorest Americans.

People were jockeying for position and spilling into every room on the ground floor. A few from the overflow stood in the front yard to listen through the open windows. Everyone began craning their heads, and cameras were clicking as Edwards made his entrance at 1:30 p.m., just as the sun came out.

Casually dressed in jeans and a crisp, white shirt, sporting the ubiquitous LiveStrong bracelet, Edwards genially shook hands with the guests as he walked toward Latha Mangipudi, who welcomed him to Nashua and to her home. In her introduction, she presented Edwards with a book about Ghandi.

"When we're trying to bring about change, when we're standing up and fighting for the change this country needs so badly, the last thing we need are two Democratic presidential candidates fighting with each other instead of fighting for the change that we need," he said, referring to recent sparring about foreign policy between Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

Edwards said he has positioned himself as the right candidate to bring "bold change" to the White House, and spoke for 15 minutes about his platform on health care, poverty, higher education, tackling big corporations and finally, Iraq.

"We need to get this country patriotic about something other than war," Edwards said when addressing global warming.

He intends to create a national cap on carbon emissions and generate billions in revenue by auctioning off greenhouse pollution permits to businesses once the country is below the cap.

Then Edwards fielded questions from the crowd, which scrutinized his platform, as well as voiced their support for his ideas.

He carefully dodged answering a direct question on his selection for a vice presidential candidate, but then espoused on his immigration policies. He would create an earned citizenship program, while also requiring immigrants to learn English. Edwards also wants stronger reprimands for businesses that hire illegal immigrants.

Sweta Vajjhala, 20, of Hudson asked how he was planning to fund his college credit plan to reduce tuition costs for higher education and if he would consider giving more funding to special education.

Edwards responded by saying to fund all his ideas, he would propose eliminating President Bush's tax cuts, change the capital gains rate to 28 percent for those who make an annual salary of more than $250,000 and use a portion of the revenue generated from his environmental policy.

"I believe it's more important to bring down the cost of health care than to have tax cuts for rich people," he said. "I believe it's more important to send our kids to college than to have more tax cuts for rich people."

Vajjhala, a Georgia Tech junior who plans to register to vote this week, said she was pleased with his response on an issue that's important to her.

The Mangipudis were offered an opportunity to host the senator in part by the U.S. Indian-American Political Action Committee, a bipartisan organization.

Krishna Mangipudi mentioned the importance of becoming part of the political system as citizens of their adopted home.

In addition, Latha Mangipudi enjoyed the opportunity to bring the Nashua community together – not only Indian Americans, but educators, health and human-services workers, friends and neighbors – to meet the candidates in an intimate forum and make educated decisions at the polls.

"It's up close and personal, and they are talking about issues in substantial depth and not sound bites," Krishna Mangipudi said.

Latha Mangipudi got to ask Edwards the final question – how he would embrace the diversity of the nation.

"I think it is the responsibility of the president to not only speak to America, but speak to the world about what our values are," Edwards said. "We need a president who will go to other parts of the world and say that we believe in diversity and we believe equality; it is at the heart and soul of who we are."

Edwards encouraged the attendees to visit his Web site (www.johnedwards.com), where he would personally answer the questions he couldn't get to Saturday.

Afterward, the audience swarmed Edwards for pictures and quick questions as he made his way around the house and to his awaiting minivans.

"Voters in New Hampshire have some very specific, hard questions about the big issues in most of the country, and it's a very healthy thing," Edwards said before heading off to his next engagement in Epping.

"I think voters ought to be tough when choosing the president of the United States. This is a test any presidential candidate should have to go through."

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