John Edwards: Turning every question into an answer about poverty

Myrtle Beach Online ^ | Monday, Dec 19, 2005 | MARTHA WAGGONER

[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."

[mbynack]

John Edwards grew up in a poor family. The gardener was poor, the cook was poor, the chauffeur was poor, the housekeeper was poor...

[beaversmom]

LOL!

[Alia]

chuckling... :) Yep, One-Note Johnnie can be relied upon in a game show for being called upon as the "expert" on one subject. Be a boring show, no? lol.

[NRA1995]

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

I thought he said his daddy was a meel worker

[ChrisFelice1]

Here's the key: Edwards MADE IT from the "poor, working class family" he grew up in. He MADE IT without the GOVERNMENT'S HELP...This proves that people can succeed in America w/out the Democrats and their programs. Yet I think the Left misses this point over and over again.

(NEW AUDIO ARCHIVES NOW POSTED ONLINE...Chris Felice Show)

[F.J. Mitchell]

LOL! Gotta agree with you.

[Tulane]

I am a lawyer (not a trial lawyer) and you are correct. As long as Johnny Boy had juries willing to give people millions of dollars for drowning in their own pools, it doesn't take much legal ability to rack up a pile of dough. The trick is getting the clients, not "legal argument."

[NautiNurse]

I thought he said his daddy was a meel worker

You are right - that's exactly what he said...over and over, ad nauseam.

[sono]

Nice - a slip and fall lawyer parasitizing those who aid the sick shamelessy lectures on poverty.

[alrea]

As long as Johnny Boy had juries willing to give people millions of dollars for drowning in their own pools, it doesn't take much legal ability to rack up a pile of dough. The trick is getting the clients, not "legal argument."

Juries are costing themselves a higher and higher percentage of their own earnings by enabling frivolous verdicts and settlements.

[CriticalJ]

Here's hoping he's on the ticket again in 2008. I sure way to keep moderates and undecided from voting Democrat.

[futurekentuckylawyer]

I have an issue with that last comment, flame me if you want.

My dad was a coal miner in Eastern Kentucky who was laid off one month after I, then a few weeks shy of three, was diagnosed with Acute Lypmhablastic Leukemia. My maternal grandfather, thankfully was a crew foreman with a bridge and highway contractor, who also thankfully carried the same insurance that the mine did. Dad started in the construction company he worked for as a crew laborer with little more than a high school diploma and a welding certificate. Through hard work, however, he was able to advance himself to a foreman's position after close to ten years as a laborer and welder, and then in 1998 was promoted to being the Equipment Superintendent, the number 3 man in the company. Although he does make good money, (although still not enough for us to be considered Upper Middle Class) now, this was not the case through out most of my childhood.

My point being that broad stereotyping such as "Rich yuppie scum" does a great disservice to people who earn their way in life, such as my father and my maternal grandfather, who with only an eight grade education became a foreman after years as a laborer who educated himself by stealing his foreman's plans at the end of the day, taking them home and studying them and waiting for the next spot to open.

I do not know the Edwards family personally, but to refer to them as "Rich Yuppie Scum" simply because his father worked his way up to management I feel may do them a bit of injustice.

[Hardastarboard]

No offense taken. I don't tend to be a flamer (in either sense of the word :-) ).

My comment doesn't reflect my attitude, merely the attitude of the poor working class area I grew up in. Trust me, I get near apoplectic when I think of Dick Gephardt's comment about "Those who've won life's lottery". I want to find him and strangle him when I hear it or think of it. It's exactly the same attitude. Sorry if my comment offended.

[Lady Jag]

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

That is true. I've an old high school classmate as proof. I nearly fell flat on my face when I discovered she'd passed the bar.

[Lady Jag]