Lots of news on Mr. "Big Boy Haircut" today!
Indexing to Edwards Watch...
Posted on 02/04/2004 12:47:24 PM PST by GailA
Edwards says the South belongs to him, not Bush By Bartholomew Sullivan Contact February 4, 2004
Fresh from his Tuesday night first-place finish in South Carolina, Democratic Party presidential candidate John Edwards came to Memphis Wednesday with the message that he can beat George Bush in the South.
Arriving late and slightly hoarse for an event at The Orpheum downtown, Edwards stressed his southern heritage, his dedication to civil rights and to ending poverty, and said he would end the divide between haves and have-nots for which he blamed the president.
"The truth is that we live in a country where there are really still two different Americas,'' he said. "One for all those families who have whatever they need whenever they need it, snf then the onefor everybody else.
"It doesn't have to be that way. You and I could change that.''
An enthusiastic crowd of about 125 cheered and chanted energetic huzzahs. All were urged to take advantage of the next two days' early voting prior to Tuesday's Tennessee Presidential Primary.
Wesley Clark also campaigned in downtown Memphis Tuesday before beginning a Tennessee bus tour.
Edwards was introduced by Ruby Wharton, wife of Shelby County mayor AC Wharton, who said she'd been a supporter before the win in South Carolina. City Councilman Myron Lowery also introduced the candidate.
Edwards was expected to travel to Norfolk, Va., after the Memphis event. Virginia also has a Feb. 10 primary. He will go from there to New York City for a taping of the David Letterman Show.
Clark cooks pancakes, talks politics at Arcade
Democratic presidential candidates turn attention to Memphis
By Jody Callahan Contact February 4, 2004
Presidential candidate Wesley Clark grilled pancakes, exhorted followers and hammered President Bush in a campaign stop in downtown Memphis Wednesday morning.
Speaking at the Arcade Restaurant on South Main to 150 or so supporters, Clark walked in 25 minutes late, donned an apron, spread enough batter on the griddle to make six pancakes then climbed atop the counter for his campaign speech.
Afterwards, the candidate basked in the glow of his first victory in the Oklahoma primary as he met with local media in the restaurant's back room.
John Edwards, the North Carolina senator, also held a morning ralliy in downtown Memphis.
"The South is not George Bush's backyard. It's my backyard," Edwards said.
In his talk, Clark said he wanted to cut taxes for lower and middle-income people while raising taxes on the wealthy; to hike the minimum wage to $7; to give grants to some students entering college; and to allow U.S. residents to purchase prescription drugs from Canada.
Clark also expressed his opposition to the war in Iraq, calling it a "huge strategic mistake."
By the time he left about an hour later for other campaign stops in Tennessee, the retired general was already losing his voice
Southerners will tell that gay-marrying gun-grabbing northeastern liberal scumbag where to shove it.
Clark, Edwards to campaign in Tennessee today The Tennessean By BONNA de la CRUZ Staff Writer Presidential candidates Wesley Clark and John Edwards are expected to court Tennessee voters on the air and in person today as the battle for votes heats up with an eye to next Tuesday's presidential primary. The two men, the only Southerners in the Democratic field, were to wake up in Memphis this morning and campaign at events within two blocks of each other. Clark, the retired Army four-star general, continues to Clarksville and Nashville later today. He is calling Tennessee a ''must-win'' state, spokeswoman Carol Andrews said. Also today, Edwards begins challenging Clark on the airwaves with two television commercials that will run statewide until Tennesseans go to the polls. The North Carolina senator will return to Tennessee tomorrow and has pledged to be in the Volunteer State every day through Feb. 10. The candidates flew to Tennessee last night after Edwards won the South Carolina primary, preventing front-runner John Kerry from sweeping the seven states that voted yesterday. Clark claimed victory in Oklahoma. They bring the political eyes of the nation to Tennessee, a state both claim as part of their personal histories. Edwards was an attorney in Nashville for three years, and Clark attended Castle Heights Military Academy in Lebanon as a high school sophomore. Aides to Kerry said the Massachusetts senator will campaign in Tennessee but had no details about when and where. ''I don't think any of the four major candidates will get out before Tennessee votes,'' said Randy Button, chairman of the Tennessee Democratic Party. He said he thinks Kerry, Clark and Edwards are in a battle for first place in Tennessee, while Howard Dean continues to be a player trying to rack up delegate votes. Chip Saltsman, former chairman of the state Republican Party, said Tennessee's primary could provide the stage for a ''knockout blow'' by Kerry of the two Southern candidates or for Edwards to ''put his stake in the ground.'' ''Clark had a hard night (last night), trying to portray himself as a Southern candidate and was destroyed in South Carolina. It was a disastrous night for him,'' Saltsman said. Democratic Party leaders in the state are promoting Tennessee's primary as pivotal in winnowing the field and as the first in a Southern battleground state, which Democrats have targeted to combat President Bush in the general election. ''We've said all along that this week would be extremely busy. Tennessee will be the focal point,'' Button said. Edwards plans to shuttle between Tennessee and Virginia, which also holds a primary on Tuesday, spokesman Colin Van Ostern said. Clark is scheduled to stay in Tennessee on a bus tour that will take him to eight cities through tomorrow. He is scheduled to be at the Montgomery County Public Library at 4:30 p.m. today and at Tennessee State University's Floyd-Paine Student Center, Room 210, in Nashville at 6:30 tonight. He is scheduled to do a bus tour through Virginia this weekend, Andrews said, and spend some time campaigning in Michigan, which votes on Saturday, and in Wisconsin, which votes Feb. 17. Clark had been the only candidate airing television commercials in Tennessee, spending about $1 million on TV and radio ads and campaign fliers. ''Clark has emphasized Tennessee from early on and has invested more time, energy and assets in Tennessee than anyone because he knows Tennessee is a must-win,'' Andrews said. ''He wants it more than the others.'' Kerry has pumped up his Tennessee staff to about 15. Campaign aides said they are discussing whether and when ads will run in Tennessee. ''We're increasing our resources invested here every day,'' said Kathy Roeder, a Kerry press secretary. ''Senator Kerry has made it clear he wants to campaign everywhere.'' Howard Dean is not expected to step into the state, nor air political commercials, said Roy Neel, chief of the Dean campaign. ''The enthusiasm is still here,'' said Deb McCarver, spokeswoman for Dean volunteers in Tennessee, who are holding gatherings tonight, organized through the Internet, including one at J & J's Market and Café, 1912 Broadway. Edwards yesterday promoted his initiatives to bring jobs, better health care and improved schools to rural parts of the country, as well as to preserve family farms.
NOTE TO BRECK GIRL...SHILLARY CARE>>>ER TENNCARE IS ABOUT TO BANKRUPT TENNESSEE.
This is the worst kind of class-warfare pandering!
I heard this kid-faced shyster oiling his way around this "us-vs-them" crap last night, and thought of Al Gore.
The Dems can't seem to resist appealing to envy and resentment as political themes.
And the part of his speech about poverty in America was an out-and-out lie.
Anybody whose kid can't get food in America ought to be jailed for child abuse.
And the Edwards family is in the first category, and you suckers out there voting for John will always be in the other one.
Aint that cute? The boy's voice is beginning to break.
You're right. Anybody who's worth $70 million is definitely a "them."
What freaking snobs.
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