John Edwards Nightly News Roundup-Tuesday 5/08 Edition

Good evening everyone. Welcome to the Tuesday edition of the Edwards Nightly News Roundup. Put your feet up, get a snack, relax and follow me below the fold for the latest in everything Edwards.

We start off tonight with a wonderful article from Fortune. This is one of the best pro-Edwards articles I've read so far and cuts through the muck to tell it like it is.

The title of the article is Union Man

(Fortune Magazine) -- No one was paying much attention to John Edwards in February 2006, when a historic contest for control of Congress was getting underway and the 2008 presidential race was still a sliver of light on the horizon. But Danny Glover was. He had to. For three days the Lethal Weapon star and the one-term Senator were glued to each other's sides like a pair of mismatched LAPD cops as they traveled across the country to lend support to hotel workers and their unions on the eve of a threatened strike.

At the time, Glover was the veteran of poverty politics; Edwards was still a rookie in training. So Glover, who prides himself on his ability to sniff out poseurs and users, warily scrutinized the carefully coifed politician from North Carolina. "There's real humility and false humility," Glover says. Which was Edwards?

In Boston, he watched Edwards listen to the plight of a single mother, an Italian immigrant who had managed on a hotel maid's pay to raise four children and send each one to college. In Chicago, Edwards took a lesson in the back-breaking work of lifting 113-pound mattresses and changing luxury duvets weighed down by piles of pillows and shams.

In L.A., the former Senator arrived overscheduled and tired, but impressed labor leaders when he readily agreed to squeeze in an extra meeting with a group of kitchen workers on their break.

The rich lawyer with the soft Southern accent bonded comfortably with this unseen servant class. Like a juror on one of Edwards's personal-injury cases, Glover found himself falling under the trial lawyer's spell. As the duo walked into a meeting of 60 African-American community leaders in downtown L.A. to make the case for greater black support of unions, the deal was sealed. "He was able to talk with them, not up to them or down to them," Glover recalls. "Here was a man who sincerely had empathy."

snip

Here Edwards tells us just how important it is for service workers to be able to join a union.

"The difference between union and non-union is literally the difference between poverty and middle class," Edwards told Fortune. "Hotel workers, restaurant workers, home health workers, hospital workers - at last count there are some 50 million people who work in the service economy. Those jobs aren't going anywhere else. They have to be done in the United States."

Here the article tells us how Edwards is a more mature and confident candidate than back in '04 and some interesting thoughts on the television show "The Fugitive" and how it played a role in the person John Edwards is today. (this dates me for sure because I remember that show well :D).

As a youth, John Edwards was enthralled with "The Fugitive," the TV series about a doctor on the lam after being wrongfully accused of murder. "I remember my building fury when - week after week - no one ever bothered to take Dr. Kimble's side and make things right for him, or even try." Edwards's recent politics have been characterized as concern for lifting the poor. But at root, it's more about righting wrongs. There's a sense of grievance in his poverty rhetoric.

The nonpartisan political analyst Charlie Cook calls Edwards's 2004 "two Americas" speech - in which the candidate accused a "handful of big corporations and insiders" of destroying the middle class - "about as close to class warfare as you've ever seen a politician do." In the years since, Edwards has shaved the edges of his rhetoric, but a theme of haves vs. have-nots still underlies his campaign.

He commonly portrays his childhood in the have-not category. But the reality is more complicated. True, his father started off as a worker in the Milliken & Co. textile mills. But by the time Edwards was 12, Wallace Edwards had risen into management, and the family had settled into a middle-class brick ranch house in Robbins, N.C. Yet his father felt both snubbed and held back by his lack of college education, angry that he wasn't treated with the "respect he felt he was entitled to," as Edwards once said.

As a 6-year-old being bullied by mill-town boys, Johnny took to heart his father's counsel to quit whining and punch back. So it was natural that as a young man Edwards was drawn to law school and the arena of personal-injury litigation, where he was able to internalize tragic stories of average folks to retell to juries of other average folks.

And this next quote below from the same article is what has "corporate America including the media that is owned by "corporate American" scared shitless right now.

Nevertheless, should Edwards overcome stiff odds and win the presidency, a new and more hostile day is sure to dawn for Washington's business interests, particularly if Democrats retain control of Congress. Legislation to make union organizing easier would readily pass (already it passed the House this year), as well as other measures to boost the bargaining leverage of organized labor. Universal health care, mostly resisted by the private sector, would top his agenda.

The hyper-cautious Hillary Clinton learned the dangers of a frontal assault on business interests with the disastrous reception to her 1993 health-care plan. Barack Obama hails from the party's liberal-left wing, but prizes consensus. For President Edwards, though, the grievances of working Americans would land squarely at the door of corporate America.

I would highly suggest reading this whole article.  
http://money.cnn.com/...

Here we have another "We the People" ad from John Edwards...this time from Iowa folks. Great ad!

Here is an article about Edwards' from his website that ran in the New York Times about New Orleans and how the treatment they recieved after Katrina is an embarrassment for America.

John Edwards...more than just talk

New Orleans has not been a hot topic at those upscale gatherings. Much of the city is still in ruins, still in "terrible shape," as Mr. Edwards noted. During a lengthy interview that followed his talk with the local residents, he told me that what had been allowed to happen to New Orleans was "an embarrassment for America" and that as president he would put the power of the federal government squarely behind its revival.

He said he would appoint a high-level official to take charge of the rebuilding, and he would have that person "report to me" every day. He said he would create 50,000 "steppingstone jobs," in parks, recreation facilities and a variety of community projects, for New Orleans residents who have been unable to find any other work. And he said, "We're also going to have to rebuild these levees."

(As if to underscore the last point, torrential rains on the same day as the interview caused dangerous flooding in the city. The levees were not an issue in this case. But the flooding occurred just as attention was being focused on serious flaws that have been found in repairs made to the levees after Hurricane Katrina.)

Mr. Edwards, who announced his campaign for the presidency in the Ninth Ward, has stood by his commitment to make poverty one of his big campaign issues. I mentioned that poverty has not gotten much attention from the national media, and asked why middle-class Americans should care about the issue.

"First, you should care because it's a moral issue," he said. "It tells us something about the character of our country. And, by the way, I think most people do care about it. And second, you should care because if you want to see the American economy grow and strengthen over time, the strength and breadth of the middle class is a critical factor. When we have middle-class families struggling on the edge, falling into poverty or near poverty, those things weaken the American economy."

For more go here  http://blog.johnedwards.com/...

Yea! We have more endorsements! This time from Virgina...

Chapel Hill, North Carolina – Senator John Edwards continues to gain support from people across the country, and today the John Edwards for President campaign announced that more than 40 Virginia Democratic leaders endorsed Edwards for president. These prominent leaders include state House Democratic Leader Ward Armstrong, numerous state legislators, a former President of the NAACP's Virginia State Caucus and a number of Virginia Democratic Party officials. These leaders join Virginia Democratic Party Chairman Dick Cranwell, who endorsed Edwards in February, in supporting Edwards for President.

"John Edwards will restore our standing in the world and lift up all Americans and Virginians," said Armstrong. "As we work to take back the Virginia state House, I am proud to have Senator Edwards as a partner in bringing hope and prosperity to all Americans."

"When I endorsed John in February, I said that it was because Democrats need to put our best candidate forward in 2008, and that John Edwards was the fastest horse in the race," said Cranwell. "I am proud to see that so many strong Virginia Democrats agree."

State Senator Janet Howell endorsed Edwards saying, "He has specific plans to end the war, provide universal health care, fight global warming and strengthen the middle class. Edwards is exactly the kind of leader we need."

The Virginia Democrats endorsing Edwards for president are:

Members of the Virginia General Assembly
Democratic Leader of the Virginia House of Delegates Ward Armstrong
Delegate Bill Barlow
Delegate Chuck Caputo
Delegate Bud Phillips
Delegate Jim Shuler
Delegate Vivian Watts

Senator John Edwards
Senator Edd Houck
Senator Janet Howell
Senator Phil Puckett
Senator Roscoe Reynolds

Former Delegates and Candidates
2006 11th Congressional District Democratic Candidate Andrew Hurst
Former Delegate Marian Van Landingham
Former Delegate Barnie Day
Virginia House of Delegates Candidate Eric Ferguson

Local Elected Officials
Arlington County Treasurer Frank O'Leary
Arlington County Board Member Chris Zimmerman
Arlington County School Board Chair Libby Garvey
Arlington County School Board Member Ed Fendley
Arlington County School Board Member Frank Wilson
Mayor of Charlottesville David Brown
Hampton City Treasurer Molly Joseph Ward
Smyth County Clerk of the Court Jimmy L. Warren
Washington County Treasurer Fred W. Parker
Former Arlington County School Board Chair & Current Arlington County Board Candidate Mary Hynes

Community & Party Leaders
Former Virginia State Conference of the NAACP President Emmitt Carlton

5th Congressional District Democratic Committee Chair, DPVA Steering Committee Member & Albermarle County Democratic Committee Chair Fred Hudson
8th Congressional District Democratic Committee Chair & DPVA Steering Committee Member Margo E. Horner
Accomack County Democratic Chair Frank Moore
Arlington County Democratic Chair Peter Rousselot
Bath County Democratic Chair Joe Wood
Carroll County Democratic Chair Jonathan McGrady
City of Buena Vista Democratic Chair Wilford Ramsey
Fairfax City Democratic Committee Chair Dan Drummond
Fairfax County - Lee Magisterial District Democratic Chair Hugh Robertson
Fairfax County - Mount Vernon Magisterial District Democratic Chair Scott Surovell
Fairfax County - Providence Magisterial District Democratic Chair Linda Byrne
Fairfax County - Sully Magisterial District Democratic Chair Mary Lee Cerillo
Floyd County Democratic Chair Kimberly Chiapetto
Franklin County Democratic Chair Joe Stanley
Matthews County Democratic Chair Jen Little
Lancaster County Democratic Chair Donna Thompson

Former Chair, Falls Church Democratic Committee Edna Frady
Immediate Past Chair, Charlottesville Democratic Committee Lloyd Snook
How You Can Take Action

Don't forget to stop by John's web site and sign to the petition telling Congress to stop the war!

http://johnedwards.com/...

Any lastly tonight we have a good article from the News And Observer that was posted on Edwards' website concerning health care and telling us that Edwards is the only candidate with a specific plan.
http://johnedwards.com/...

Rob Christensen
The News & Observer
May 6, 2007

Even before his wife, Elizabeth Edwards, learned that her cancer had returned, John Edwards had made health-care reform one of his signature issues in his quest for the White House.

Edwards mailed a DVD to every active Democratic household in the critical state of Iowa in March, outlining his plan to extend health insurance to every American. He has said health-care reform would be one of the first issues he would tackle as president. And Edwards has defied conventional political wisdom, saying he would raise taxes to pay for it.

"What we have is a dysfunctional health-care system in the United States of America," Edwards said at a recent Democratic presidential forum on health-care reform. "We need big, bold, dramatic change, not just small change."

But what kind of plan is Edwards putting forward? Who would it help? Who would pay for it? And does it have any better chance of getting through Congress than the plan backed by the Clintons more than a decade ago?

Edwards is not alone among the Democratic presidential hopefuls in advocating universal health insurance. His chief Democratic rivals, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois, have both voiced support for the idea.

But Edwards is the only major candidate who has laid out a specific plan for making sure that everyone is insured. (Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich, a Democratic presidential candidate, has proposed extending Medicare to cover everyone.)

Okie Dokie, that's the Tuesday Edwards Nightly News Roundup. Stick around and join in the discussion.

Never forget that John Edwards is fighting the good fight for...

Updated to add this video from Green Day in honor of Congress and the possible compromise.