Posted on 07/09/2007 3:20:32 AM PDT by personalaccts
Edwards to announce poverty tour
Can JRE pull off a JFK, or an RFK (asks Politico chief political writer Mike Allen, who is sharing guestblogging duties while Ben is on vacation)? 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”), 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.
UPDATE: In response to a comment below from reader SRB, who challenged the use of "overwhelming," here are the 1960 West Virginia primary results: 60.8 percent for Kennedy, to 39.2 percent for Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota. See the whole chart here.
The general election, probably what SRB was thinking of, was one of the closest in history -- 49.7 percent for Kennedy to 49.5 percent for one Richard Milhous Nixon of California.
1. The powerful and corporations are not paying their fair share they find tricks like setting up dummy corporations so they don't have to pay into medicare. That leaves you old folks to scramble for dog food. (I John Edwards did it for a good reason). I had to pay for my 30,000 sq ft home.
2. I'll make it against the law for Corporations to have offshore accounts so they'll be forced to pay their fair share. (I know the equity fund group I was a part of did it. I did make $1.500,000,000 but I did it to understand why you're poor.
3. I will give any poor person $1,250 for a haircut. Only if you're from California.
Hopefully this guy will be the nominee.
http://www.johnlocke.org/site-docs/images/edwardshouse-low.jpg
I think most Americans would be surprised by the amount of rural poverty in this country. But I don’t think having Silky Pony deliver the message is going to help matters.
Who does John Edwards have as a campaign advisor? Hilary Clinton in a Dollar Store Groucho Marx cheap disguise?
There is something REALLY wrong with this clueless narcissist crooked lawyer, that he thinks he can actually pull this mega-hypocrisy off.
The real question- will Breck Girl take his hairdresser along? Surely he wont allow some backwoods hoopie barber to cut his locks in WV.
the two rules you always use in politics are: Don’t dance. And don’t wear hats.
what about the MAC ARE AYYY NAAAAAAA?
Hypocrisy, thy name is Edwards.
LLS
He should kick the whole tour off with a nice, homey, beer & bratwurst bash for his neighbors at his modest 29,000 square-foot home. Well, maybe not. I guess the visuals on that wouldn’t be any better than the hair-primping shots up You Tube. If this guy is such a smart lawyer, how can he not understand he’s become just a silly, repetitive joke?
Poverty of ideas tour???
With all his money, has it never occurred to him that, say, a few million to the Salvation Army or maybe a few churches in depressed areas would not only do some actual and immediate good for people in need but also set an example to others who do a lot more blathering than digging into their own pockets? (Anyone know his record on charitable giving?)
When he opens up his estate to the homeless, that’s the day he get’s a sliver of credibility !
What's next?, "John was here" on restroom stalls along the interstate?
(^^^ from rushlimbaugh.com)
Zoolander (Ben Stiller) male model leaves to get in touch with his roots (brother, Vince Vaughn, dad, Jon Voight) coal miners from W. Virginia. Zoolander puts in one day at the mine and complains of black lung at the bar after the workday.
A commercial with him dressed as a mermaid, selling male body moisturizer comes on the TV in the bar causing Voight to tell him "What the hell is that? walking around in your underwear with your wiener hangin out, dressed like a mermaid? Your dead to me son."
Zoolander cries "Merman dad! Merman!" and runs out the door.
This is a lot more consistent than it sounds.
This is what rich leftists always want.
Tax the middle class into poverty, spend the proceeds on stupid programs to “help” the poor, but which do nothing.
And then your own wealth is now effectively tripled or quadrupled in relationship to the impoverished society that you now rule over.
It’s the obvious next step for an ambulance-chaser-turned-mega-rich dude to take.
I had a hard time sitting through the whole thing but that was a very funny scene. :-)
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.