Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

John Edwards: Turning every question into an answer about poverty
Myrtle Beach Online ^ | Monday, Dec 19, 2005 | MARTHA WAGGONER

Posted on 12/19/2005 2:52:09 AM PST by beaversmom

RALEIGH, N.C. - Ask former Sen. John Edwards a question about foreign relations, and he's likely to respond with an answer about poverty.

Edwards, who leads the new Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is building his foreign policy resume - perhaps in response to criticism during his 2004 presidential run that he lacked overseas experience and with an eye toward another possible campaign. But his work on poverty seems to touch everything he does.

When asked Thursday about his focus on Russia - a nation more associated with the Cold War than the war on terror - Edwards mentioned his recent op-ed article about Iraq that was published in the Washington Post.

Then he talked about the poverty he had seen during a recent visit to India and also the suffering of the poor in other countries.

"In addition to Iraq, Russia, I'm also very focused on the issue of world poverty, what's happening in the Sudan, and then Darfur with genocide," Edwards said Thursday. "All are issues I care deeply about and I think are important to America's ability to lead on the big moral issues that face the world."

Edwards went to Moscow as co-chair of a Council on Foreign Relations task force examining U.S. relations with Russia. He met with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Britain's treasury chief, Gordon Brown, earlier this year, and visited India.

But on Thursday, he focused solidly on domestic issues while speaking with the students at Wake Tech Community College during a forum sponsored by Generation Engage, a nonpartisan group working to connect politicians with young people who don't attend four-year colleges.

Edwards' oldest daughter, Cate, is on the group's board.

Forty-nine percent of 18-to-24-year-olds have no experience at a four-year college, which is typically where politicians reach young people, said Generation Engage's executive director, Adrian Talbott. Generation Engage uses electronic technology to make politicians available to people in that age group at community colleges, bars and restaurants.

During the forum Thursday, Edwards stuck to the poverty issue whenever possible, warning students that the world is watching how the United States responds to the poverty left behind by Hurricane Katrina.

He mentioned a headline in an overseas newspaper: "The Shaming of America," it read, along with photographs of hurricane victims from New Orleans.

"Are we actually going to step to the plate and give these people a chance to help themselves?" he asked. "Or are we just going to continue doing what we've been doing? That question is with us."

Edwards, who has praised young people for leading the civil-rights movement and Vietnam protests in the United States and apartheid opposition in South Africa without waiting for their elders, encouraged his audience Thursday to do the same with poverty.

"If I could convince young people to make this the cause of your generation, I would feel like I've done something great with my life," he said. "If I did nothing else but that, I would be happy.

"Because these folks have never had - I can tell you from being in rooms with them for hour after hour after hour - they have never had a champion. They have no idea what it's like to have somebody stand up for them. They scrape and fight and hang on by their fingernails just to survive every single day. They're worried about their kids eating. It's not right. It's not right, and you can do something about it."


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; US: North Carolina
KEYWORDS: edwards2008
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-35 next last

1 posted on 12/19/2005 2:52:10 AM PST by beaversmom
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: beaversmom; Howlin
Edwards know all about poverty.

Edward's family secret: His daddy was a mill worker

2 posted on 12/19/2005 3:01:01 AM PST by NautiNurse (The greatest crime since World War II has been U.S. foreign policy - Ramsey Clark)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: beaversmom

I had to read this twice, I thought they were talking about Jimmy Carter.


3 posted on 12/19/2005 3:19:49 AM PST by Recon Dad (Proud Marine Dad)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: NautiNurse

His dad did work in a mill but was a manager and well paid.


4 posted on 12/19/2005 3:23:06 AM PST by TXBSAFH ("I would rather be a free man in my grave then living as a puppet or a slave." - Jimmy Cliff)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: beaversmom
It is a normal human practice to allow the dead to lay in peace.


Though there may be some that believe that John Edwards is alive, I can assure you that he is quite dead.

Like Howard Dean, Al Gore and John Kerry, (just to name three) John Edwards is a figment of his, and other deluded persons, imaginations. And that aroma you smell isn't rotting fish.





5 posted on 12/19/2005 3:29:39 AM PST by G.Mason (Others have died for my freedom; now this is my mark ... Marine Corporal Jeffrey Starr, KIA 04-30-05)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: beaversmom

http://www.generationengage.org/who.htm

Our Board of Directors:

Devin Talbott
Co-Founder, Chairman

Adrian Talbott
Co-Founder, Executive Director

Justin Rockefeller
National Program Director

Cate Edwards
Board Member

Anthony Edson
Board Member

Ali Samadi
Board Member

http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/Features/CapitalLiving/121305.html

December 13, 2005

Devin Talbott, his brother Adrian and Justin Rockefeller have such privileged lives that they must be tempted to get on with them and let other young people get on with theirs unaided.

But they’re spending a good deal of time in an effort, which others have tried in vain before, to get their generation involved in politics.

Devin, 29, and Adrian, 25, are the sons of Strobe Talbott, former deputy secretary of state in the Clinton administration and now president of the Brookings Institution. Rockefeller, 26, is the son of Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.).

(snip)

The Talbotts, both Democrats, brainstormed at a wedding in Kansas City, Mo., and knew they had to get involved. They enlisted Rockefeller, a friend they had grown up with in political Washington. In February 2005, the trio launched Generation Engage at Kennedy Center, with Coretta Scott King, widow of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) as keynote speakers.

(snip)


6 posted on 12/19/2005 3:47:45 AM PST by maggief
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: G.Mason


Admittedly, When I read "John Edwards" in the headline, I thought they were talking about the guy who talks to dead people on TV. I forgot all about the other one.


7 posted on 12/19/2005 3:56:26 AM PST by LauraleeBraswell
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: beaversmom

Dear John Edwards,

You could have prevented my bone crushing life of poverty if you had only chosen not to sue my former employer into bankruptcy, putting 125 people onto the bread lines while fattening your wallet.


8 posted on 12/19/2005 3:58:21 AM PST by noblejones (Ben Stein for President, 2008.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LauraleeBraswell
"Admittedly, When I read "John Edwards" in the headline, I thought they were talking about the guy who talks to dead people on TV. I forgot all about the other one."


Bwahahahahahahaha


Thanks for the early morning laugh! ;)





9 posted on 12/19/2005 3:59:29 AM PST by G.Mason (Others have died for my freedom; now this is my mark ... Marine Corporal Jeffrey Starr, KIA 04-30-05)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: beaversmom

note to Edwards: give all your(ambulance chasing)money to charity and live in a cardboard box....then we'll talk.


10 posted on 12/19/2005 4:02:15 AM PST by RckyRaCoCo ("When you have to shoot, shoot, don't talk!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: beaversmom
Mr. Man of the People still own this beach house?


11 posted on 12/19/2005 4:07:58 AM PST by mewzilla (Property must be secured or liberty cannot exist. John Adams)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: beaversmom
I am continually amazed that this man is a successful lawyer.

Guess being a lawyer really doesn't require much intelligence.

12 posted on 12/19/2005 4:10:46 AM PST by Dustbunny (Christ is the reason for the season)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: TXBSAFH
His dad did work in a mill but was a manager and well paid.

In all seriousness, where I grew up, managers in any business were rich yuppie scum. I'm not kidding. He didn't grow up poor at all, IMHO.

13 posted on 12/19/2005 4:19:03 AM PST by Hardastarboard
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: beaversmom

The poverty argument works.

When I was kid my mother told me to eat my peas because there were starving people in India. When I refused and offered to mail the peas to India, I got sent to my room. After that I ate the stupid peas.


14 posted on 12/19/2005 4:50:05 AM PST by sergeantdave (Member of the Arbor Day Foundation, travelling the country and destroying open space)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: beaversmom

And just when I had all but forgotten about him.


15 posted on 12/19/2005 4:59:37 AM PST by mtbopfuyn (Legality does not dictate morality... Lavin)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Constitution Day; TaxRelief; 100%FEDUP; 2ndMostConservativeBrdMember; ~Vor~; A2J; a4drvr; Adder; ...

NC *Ping*

Please FRmail Constitution Day OR TaxRelief OR Alia if you want to be added to or removed from this North Carolina ping list.
16 posted on 12/19/2005 5:09:48 AM PST by Alia
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: beaversmom
Ask former Sen. John Edwards a question about foreign relations, and he's likely to respond with an answer about poverty.

Lor', luve a duck...Just like the feminists -- where everything ties back to their vaginas. And while they demand that they be respected for their great "brains". As I've said for years, feminists think with their sexual organs; and have sex with their brains. And demand to be respected as "hole" persons. Nutzoid.

17 posted on 12/19/2005 5:12:08 AM PST by Alia
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: beaversmom

Edwards is no more of a phoney than the rest of the Dims but he is arguably the most transparent phoney of them all.


18 posted on 12/19/2005 5:17:32 AM PST by poncho67
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: NautiNurse
Memo to John Edwards: There are THREE (not 2) AMERICAS:


*brain dead but vicious liberals
*unreliable want-it-both-ways "Moderates"
*country before party Conservatives

19 posted on 12/19/2005 5:18:56 AM PST by Carolinamom (Winter is in my head , but eternal spring is in my heart. ---Victor Hugo)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Alia

Maybe little Johnie is preparing himself for a gig on Jeopardy.


20 posted on 12/19/2005 5:19:56 AM PST by F.J. Mitchell (Dems tell so many lies and damned lies they can't remember which switch was which.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-35 next last

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson