Posted on 07/08/2007 4:01:22 PM PDT by Roberts
Can JRE pull off a JFK, or an RFK? John Edwards plans to announce Monday that he’ll take a break from fund-raising and campaigning in early-voting states next week for a three-day, eight-state, 12-city “Road to One America” tour aimed at calling attention to poverty in the deep South, the Mississippi Delta, Appalachia and the Rust Belt. The campaign points out that none of the states he’ll visit has an early 2008 primary, and says Edwards won’t be doing rallies.
Instead, TV viewers will see Edwards in coal country, Edwards in a factory, Edwards on a farm, Edwards in a struggling neighborhood, Edwards in a school, Edwards in a health care clinic. “It’s an effort to show the rest of the country how 37 million Americans live their lives in poverty every single day,” an Edwards aide said. “It’s not only their workplaces -- it’s their homes and the places they get health care.”
The photogenic swing is reminiscent of John F. Kennedy’s repeated coal-country campaigning before the West Virginia primary of 1960. His overwhelming victory ended Catholicism as an issue in the campaign and brought national attention to Appalachian poverty. Twenty-eight years later, Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis donned a hard hat and overalls for an hour-long tour of a West Virginia coal mine.
“By telling their stories to the rest of the nation, the tour will attempt to shed light on the new faces of poverty in America,” the Edwards campaign says in an announcement document. The former U.S. senator from North Carolina has a plan for “ending poverty in America within a generation” that includes an increase in the minimum wage, investments in rural community colleges, creation of 1 million short-term “stepping stone” jobs, and a program to encourage responsible fatherhood and fight teen pregnancy.
Edwards has been putting a new emphasis on his message of economic fairness as a way to make himself more than the anti-war candidate. He also wants to mop up union endorsements and get more traction among lower-income, working voters without a college education. But he’s so wealthy that he has struggled to mold a populist image.
Stop-by-stop information (along with a snide aside and an explanation of the RFK reference) after the jump.
Edwards will start next Sunday, July 15, with a walking tour of the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans. The three-day tour will officially begin the next day in New Orleans with a town hall in conjunction with ABC’s “Good Morning America,” where he’ll kick off the day’s theme of “Rewarding Work and Ending Poverty in America.” Then he’ll head to Canton, Miss.; Marks, Miss.; Marianna, Ark.; and Memphis, Tenn., where he’ll give the first of two speeches.
On Tuesday, July 16, he’ll take his theme of “Strengthening Neighborhoods and Cities Rising” to Cleveland; Youngstown, Ohio, where he’ll give the second speech; and Pittsburgh.
The finale will be Wednesday, July, 18, with a theme of “Restoring Hope to Rural America.” He’ll stop in isolated southwest Virginia, then will end in Whitesburg, Ky., and Prestonsburg, Ky. That's the same Prestonsburg that was the final public stop by Robert F. Kennedy in 1968 on HIS iconic poverty tour.
P.S. In Maureen Dowd’s essential Sunday account of an interview with Edwards about his tastes in books, music, TV and actors (“Phantom At The Opera: He likes his culture with a drawl”), http://select.nytimes.com/2007/07/08/opinion/08dowd.html?_r=1&hp=&oref=login&pagewanted=print she quotes the former senator as saying: “Elizabeth thinks the two rules you always use in politics are: Don’t dance. And don’t wear hats.” Ms. Dowd adds: “Especially not if you’ve got such a fabulous haircut to show off.” And we might add: Tough to stick to in coal country.
Forty-some years after the "War on Poverty" began, we find a man with "a plan".
Hide your wallets, folks.
Oops.
I thought this was a post from the Onion.
May as well be.
How will he hold up away from those $1200 haircuts or his multi room mansion surrounded by oodles of land? Need I mention his outrageous income stealing money from companies through phony lawsuits?
Truly “hysterical”.
All right, we will concede him the votes of the poor.
Too bad this isn’t enough to carry any states.
He’s either looking for a cheaper haircut or litigants in a class action lawsuit in case he doesn’t make it as President.
I think its long past time that we redeploy our resources from this failed "war."
Edwards in a beauty salon, Edwards counting his 1/3rd take from frivolous lawsuits, Edwards driving his SUV, Edwards splashing around in his luxury pool, Edwards ............
It’s John Edwards’ own little Live Earth tour.
I agree. After-all, where is the exit strategy?
Here in Appalachia, the best thing he could do is bring wads of cash and hand it out to us rural folk. Hell, we’ll take him out ‘coon huntin’ at midnight as our way of saying thanks. I’m sure he’d just love that.
THAT’S funny!
He’ll entice the poor to vote for him by showing them an aerial view of his 25,000 sq ft bungalow and promise that they,too,can own one someday.
Start at your HEDGE FUND where they GAVE you HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of DOLLARS.....next stop your 20,000 sq. ft MANSION......next stop, your hairdresser will fly in for your $400.00 plus AIRFARE + Time off......then the final stop is court where you BANKRUPT DOCTORS and OTHERS....now THAT”S the Poverty Tour!
how much is he charging for his appearances?
I do not understand why that video clip has not ended his candidacy. Great Scotts, what a conceited, primping “male.”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.