John Edwards for President-Las Vegas Review-Journal: Edwards Tour Stops in Reno - Democrat Supports Minimum Wage Hike, Opposes Yucca

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Edwards Tour Stops in Reno - Democrat Supports Minimum Wage Hike, Opposes Yucca

Dec 30, 2006 11:15 PM

Sean Whaley
Las Vegas Review-Journal
Dec 30, 2006

RENO — Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards told an often-cheering crowd of about 1,000 Northern Nevadans mostly what they wanted to hear Friday, from support for a federal minimum wage hike and gay civil unions to a flat rejection of Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste repository.

During what probably will become one of many visits to the Silver State by Democrats eyeing the White House in 2008, Edwards said he also supports universal health care and federal funding for stem cell research. Edwards said it would be his goal as president, "to re-establish America's moral leadership in the world."

The starting place to do this is Iraq, where Edwards said it is absolutely wrong to escalate U.S. troop involvement in the fractured nation.

"What we ought to be doing in Iraq, is first we ought to tell the people the truth," he said. "Our choices now in Iraq are bad and worse.

"My own view is that we need to make it clear we are going to leave Iraq, and the best way to make it clear we're going to leave is to actually start leaving," Edwards said. "I believe we can withdraw 40,000 to 50,000 troops safely, right now, and then we ought to continue that process over time."

Re-establishing the country's moral authority around the world also will require some sacrifice by Americans, especially when it comes to the issue of global warming and the country's dependence on fossil fuels, Edwards said.

"We have got to make changes," he said. "We have to demonstrate that we understand what is happening and that we're willing to sacrifice and be patriotic about something besides just war."

"We need to be the example for the rest of the world," Edwards said.

While he would not attempt to reduce the use of fossil fuels with tax increases on gasoline and carbon emissions, Edwards said at some point it might become necessary.

A former U.S. senator from North Carolina, Edwards was the vice presidential candidate on the 2004 Democratic ticket with John Kerry. His visit to Nevada came a day after he announced his bid for president in New Orleans.

Nevada has become an important state for Democratic presidential candidates since it was picked by the Democratic Party to hold its caucus on Jan. 19, 2008, just after the Iowa caucus on Jan. 14 and ahead of the New Hampshire primary on Jan. 29.

Edwards said Nevada will be an important state for candidates and that he supported the idea of the early caucus.

"I think Nevada, both by the way of geography and ethnicity, the labor presence in Nevada, represents a voice that should be heard early in the nominating process," he said in a brief question-and-answer period with the media after the event.

Edwards, 53, acknowledged he voted for the war in Iraq and that it was a mistake.

He also admitted voting against Nevada's veto of Yucca Mountain in 2002, but said it was a local issue that involved the alternative of storing waste in North Carolina.

"What's happened over time with Yucca Mountain has become very clear to me," he said. "The science behind it is suspect at best. And I've always been concerned about the transportation of nuclear waste across the country."

Edwards admitted there is "no good answer" right now to dealing with nuclear waste.

Following his Nevada stopover, Edwards returned to North Carolina.

State and national Democratic party officials hope the early Nevada caucus will get more Democrats to vote and more Nevadans to vote Democratic. Any registered Democrat will be allowed to participate in the Nevada caucus. There is no parallel early Republican caucus in Nevada.