[John Edwards] Sounding Like a Candidate, Calls for Fighting Poverty

from Bloomberg

Former Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards says he will do ``anything'' to get ordinary Americans to pay attention to poverty -- even at the risk of sounding like a 2008 presidential candidate.

Edwards, who ran for the Democratic nomination in 2004 before joining Massachusetts Senator John Kerry on the ticket, has focused on the issue since he left the Senate last year, as director of the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

While the job has given him the opportunity to raise the visibility of poverty in the U.S., it has also given him plenty of opportunities to keep himself visible. One came yesterday, when Edwards, 53, visited Washington for a speech at the National Press Club.

``Anything I can do to get poverty on the national radar screen, I am going to do,'' Edwards said in an interview before his speech, which he said was the first of several on issues he considers important, including energy costs and education.

``Edwards really found his voice and calling after the last election,'' said Anna Burger, international secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees International Union. ``He talks about rebuilding the middle class; he talks about his poverty-center work. And he is out and around the states taking up the cause of working people.''

Labor's Candidate

If Edwards does run for president, he intends to be the candidate of organized labor. He has walked picket lines with International Brotherhood of Teamsters President James P. Hoffa, spoke at the United Mine Workers convention in Las Vegas in April, championed the cause of hotel and restaurant workers and met with small gatherings of workers and union leaders around the country.

''I think that he is out working to win the hearts and minds of working people and union activists,'' said Burger, whose union represents 1.8 million workers. `And he is not shy about saying he is interested in running for president.''

Bob Kerrey, a former governor and senator from Nebraska who ran for president in 1992, recruited Edwards to run for the Senate from North Carolina when Kerrey was chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Kerrey said that as the presidential campaign heats up in the fall of 2007, ``I think Edwards could open up a strong second; he might even be the front-runner. It is not impossible. He will be labor's favorite Democrat.''

Strong in Iowa

Another Edwards advantage in a presidential run is a strong organization in Iowa, whose caucuses begin the primary season. Edwards came in a strong second to John Kerry in Iowa in 2004 by campaigning hard in rural areas. He also carried Polk County, the most populous county in the state.

Edwards visited Iowa four times in 2005 and five times so far this year, the most visits of any 2008 Democratic hopeful. Senator Hillary Clinton of New York, who is campaigning for re- election to the Senate this year, hasn't been to Iowa since 2003.

Two weeks ago, Edwards came in first in a Des Moines Register poll of Iowans who say they are likely to vote in the caucuses. He received 30 percent in the poll to Clinton's 26 percent, one of the rare times that Clinton hasn't come in first in a presidential poll.

The poll also found Clinton's ``very unfavorable'' rating was 11 percent, nearly four times that of Edwards' rating of 3 percent.

`He's Running'

``If he wins the Iowa caucus, he will be No. 1 in New Hampshire, and the people in New Hampshire are very smart when it comes to presidential politics,'' said Bob Kerrey, who is now president of New School University in New York City. ``They want a winner.''

Gordon Fischer, former chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party, who isn't aligned with any presidential campaign, says Edwards has ``great support'' in Iowa. ``He has phoned folks here and e-mailed folks here and done guest editorials in the Des Moines Register,'' Fischer said. ``He is working it. That pays off.''

Fischer said the Iraq war is very important to the Democratic activists who dominate the Iowa caucuses, and ``Edwards' apology made a big difference to Democrats here.''

Fischer was referring to a Nov. 13, 2005, opinion piece Edwards wrote for the Washington Post that began, ``I was wrong.'' He went on to say that his 2002 Senate vote authorizing President George W. Bush to use force in Iraq was a mistake, and ``I take responsibility for that mistake.''

Withdraw From Iraq

Yesterday, Edwards called for the immediate withdrawal of 40,000 U.S. troops from Iraq. ``We need to be getting out,'' Edwards said in the interview. He said all combat troops should be withdrawn ``within 12 to 18 months.''

In his Press Club speech, Edwards also addressed energy policy, saying ``I want to live in an America free from dependence on fossil fuel'' and that ``sacrifice, conservation and innovation will be required.''

In the interview, Edwards touched on immigration, saying those workers already in the country illegally should be placed on a ``path to citizenship'' as long as they pay their taxes, pay a fine and learn English. He said he also favors improved border security.

He called the possibility of Iran gaining a nuclear weapon ``the most serious threat the world has seen since the Cuban missile crisis.''

Chief Issue

In both his speech and interview, he returned repeatedly to the issue of domestic poverty. He proposed that the number of poor Americans be cut by a third in the next 10 years and poverty be eliminated in the next 30 years. In his speech, Edwards also stressed concern for the ``forgotten middle class.''

Edwards said America must build a ``working society'' that would create ``new opportunities for work,'' plus ``affordable housing near good jobs'' and a million ``last-chance'' jobs ``for people who cannot find work on their own.''

As Bill Clinton did when he ran for president in 1992, Edwards also emphasized the importance of individual responsibility, saying ``we would expect everyone who can work to work'' and that it is time to finish the job of welfare reform by giving low-income men the opportunity to work and ``challenging them to take responsibility for doing so.''

``If they don't work, they don't get paid,'' Edwards said. ``If they owe child support, their children will get paid first, because women shouldn't have to raise children on their own.''

Populist Message

In 2004, Edwards stressed a populist message of two Americas, ``one America that is struggling to get by, another America that can buy anything it wants, even Congress and a president.''

Independent political analyst Charles Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report in Washington, said Edwards has honed his message since that campaign, and that now ``it is less class- warfare oriented.''

Cook said that among Edwards' Democratic rivals, former Governor Mark Warner of Virginia and Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana ``are competing for the cautious middle,'' while John Kerry is an ``old-style populist.''

``Edwards is now offering a hybrid of populism and liberalism that works,'' Cook said.