John Edwards for President-Edwards offers specifics aplenty

Edwards offers specifics aplenty

Feb 25, 2007 10:00 AM

Chelsea Conaboy
The Concord Monitor
Feb 25, 2007

In message and delivery, former senator John Edwards used a string of house parties yesterday to set himself apart from the leading Democratic presidential candidates who have called on New Hampshire voters recently.

In recent visits, Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, who top the polls, have held auditorium-sized events attended by sign-toting crowds and bookended by abbreviated glad-handing. They've talked in generalities about a new direction for the nation and of their desire to have "conversations" with the voters.

Yesterday, there was no campaign music or "town hall" discussion. There was no podium. Just John Edwards in a button-up shirt, squeezing through a packed living room in Nashua, standing on a chair to see over a crowd in a Concord home and talking in front of a Salem fireplace to people sitting cross-legged on the rug about the policy initiatives he's honed since he began his campaign in 2003.

"This is what New Hampshire campaigning is supposed to be about," he said at each place.

Edwards laid out his plan for universal health care. It would require employers to provide insurance or pay into regional health-care markets, which would offer individuals and small businesses a choice between private insurers or a government plan that Edwards called "Medicare-plus." The program would cost between $90 billion and $120 billion per year, and he said it would be paid for by eliminating tax cuts for the wealthiest and requiring brokerage houses to report and pay taxes on capital gains.

Edwards then encouraged questions on any topic. No one probed him on the health care plan.

"If you don't bring up Iraq, I will," he told the crowd at the Nashua home of state Sen. Dave Gottesman, whom Edwards assisted in his 2006 senate campaign.

"I voted for this war. I should not have voted for this war," he said. "I accept my own responsibility for that."

In Nashua, Edwards talked about congressional initiatives to cap funding for the war in Iraq at a level that would sustain 100,000 troops and then steadily "ratchet" that lower to bring troops home. He suggested trimming the defense budget by limiting spending on two newer fighter planes in the Air Force and cutting the missile defense system. Asked about a plan to end homelessness, he proposed creating 1 million more Section 8 housing vouchers.

In Salem, he talked about improving relations with Iran, saying Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad "is not politically stable in his own country." The Iranian people could be persuaded to help quell upheaval in Iraq, he said. If Iraq falls further into chaos, Iran's economy couldn't support 1 million Iraqi refugees, he said, and the Shi'a Muslim majority in Iraq and Iran would be in the minority if Iraqi violence spilled over into a full Middle Eastern conflict.

In Concord, Edwards talked about finding a competent and accountable leader for rebuilding New Orleans and allowing undocumented immigrants to become citizens if they pay a fine and learn English. He detailed his "College for Everyone" project, outlined before the 2004 primary and launched in a North Carolina county in 2005. The program pays for the tuition and books of any student willing to work up to 20 hours a week while in school.

In each place, he called for the United States to stop the genocide in Darfur and to take action on global warming. The latter, he said, could "make world wars look small."

Edwards recognized that detailing policy initiatives is politically risky.

"When people know where you stand, when (your opinion) isn't fuzzy, they can disagree with you," he said in Salem. "I believe it's more important to say who you are."

For all his talk of budget issues and foreign policy, Edwards spoke often of hope for a better future. He said America needs a leader that the world can recognize as a decent human being.

"We can't be the country of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo and the war in Iraq," he said.

Invoking the example of John F. Kennedy's 1963 "I am a Berliner" speech, Edwards said he would like to meet with world leaders within the first 90 days of presidency to talk about restoring relations and speak publicly about recreating hope in America.

Steve Winnett of Concord asked Edwards what he thought of former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack exiting the race this week.

"Can you stay in it, given that people are dropping out already?" said Winnett, who later said he had been a Vilsack supporter.

"Oh yeah, I can stay in it," Edwards said. "I've been through this. I have walked this road before. . . . I am sure-footed."

Political analyst Arnie Arnesen said after the event that the field of Democratic candidates make up a good pool from which the next president's advisors should be picked. She said Edwards proved himself prepared to be president last night. But whether he would make a better Cabinet member, she wasn't sure.