John Edwards

excerpts from the Iowa Daily Report

December 1-15, 2003

Edwards supporters hopeful

Sen. John Edwards was in Iowa City on Sunday and his supporters hope their hard work pays off for the candidate, according to the University of Iowa Daily Iowan:

A characteristically hopeful Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., signed copies of his new book at a downtown bookstore Sunday while provoking speculation he will surpass expectations in Iowa's Jan. 19 caucuses.

The hope for Edwards is that he beat expectations and come in third:

"I think there's a scenario where it could happen," said David Redlawsk, a UI assistant political-science professor, noting that dampened expectations can be advantageous in the Iowa caucuses. "The Edwards people have been doing their thing quietly."

UI Student Government Vice President Mayrose Wegmann, an active Dean supporter who attended the signing, said Edwards ascended to her second-choice candidate after she became discontent with Kerry. (12/1/2003)

Edwards’ new pipes

Senator John Edwards Monday named Roger Salazar as his campaign's national spokesperson.

In 1999, Salazar was recognized as one of the "100 Most Influential Hispanics in America" by Hispanic Business Magazine.

In 1999, Salazar served as deputy press secretary and acting national spokesperson for the Gore 2000 Presidential Campaign Committee. From 1998-99, he was an assistant press secretary in the Clinton White House, serving as administration spokesperson to media outlets in California and other Western states.

In 1998, Salazar was deputy press secretary for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and from 1997-98 was assistant press secretary for Vice President Al Gore. He also served as news analysis coordinator and as specialty press coordinator in the White House Press Office from 1995 to 1997. (12/2/2003)

Edwards’ new TV ad

Senator John Edwards today unveiled a new television ad that highlights the importance of providing tax relief to the middle class. The ad will air on broadcast news stations in the Ottumwa, Sioux City and Mason City markets and on cable stations in the Quad Cities market. The following is the script for the new ad:

JOHN EDWARDS: "This President should be made to explain why a multi-millionaire sitting beside his swimming pool should be paying a lower tax rate than a teacher, than a police officer, than a secretary."

VOICEOVER: John Edwards' plan has been called the best platform of all the candidates. Repeal tax breaks George Bush created for wealthy investors, and target tax cuts to the middle class.

JOHN EDWARDS: "Helping them buy a house, helping them invest, helping them save. I'm John Edwards and I approve this message." (12/2/2003)

Edwards tour

Sen. John Edwards has a strong belief in tours and is taking another one. Edwards discussed his plans for a new approach to trade agreements that will protect American jobs and improve labor and environmental standards overseas. He announced the policies in Davenport, Muscatine, Columbus Junction, Burlington, and Keosauqua on the second day of his 25-county “Working for All of Us Tour” of Iowa. Edwards announced three ways that his approach to trade would differ from that of the Bush administration:

• Establish an International “Right to Know.” Edwards announced his support for measures requiring big companies to disclose whether their overseas plants engage in abusive labor and environmental practices. He also said he supported requiring companies to disclose when they have moved U.S. jobs overseas, including call centers. These disclosures would be required on bills or on the Internet, he said.

• Open Foreign Markets to Iowa Goods. Edwards also announced his support for aggressive measures to open foreign markets to Iowa’s agricultural products. He said he would ensure that China does not re-impose regulations on soybeans that effectively blocked U.S. imports for three months in 2002. Edwards said he would take the case all the way to the World Trade Organization if necessary. In addition, Edwards also said he would ensure that Mexico opens its market to corn syrup, as already required by a WTO ruling striking down Mexico’s 20 percent tax on corn syrup imports.

• Include Strong Labor and Environmental Standards in Trade Deals. Edwards said he would only negotiate trade agreements that include labor protections like the core labor standards of the International Labor Organization, including the right to organize and prohibitions on slave and child labor. Edwards also said he would include strong enforcement mechanisms, such as provisions treating foreign imports produced in highly abusive conditions as “hot goods” that could be blocked at the border. Edwards specifically criticized chapter 11 of NAFTA, which allows foreign investors to challenge U.S. environmental laws in secret tribunals. While President Bush has opposed these standards, Edwards said they must be included in new trade deals such as the Free Trade Area of the Americas. (12/2/2003)

Edwards not counted out

Sen. John Edwards is not counted out of third place according to Des Moines Register columnist David Yepsen. Yepsen gives his opinion on whether Edwards can compete with Sen. John Kerry’s big push in Iowa to try and beat Dean here now that it looks like he can’t beat him in New Hampshire:

But does Kerry's strong push for first or second make that impossible? No. Edwards still has upside potential. Edwards grew up poor in the rural South, and he seems a good cultural fit with Democrats in small-town Iowa. (Unlike some in this race, Edwards actually knew what a big hog lot smelled like before he got here.) His TV commercials are good. And many longtime Democratic activists are still undecided. They know it's a mistake to commit too early, lest your candidate dissemble or another shine.

Large numbers of "undecideds" keep hope alive for a lot of candidates these days.

Hope is also kept alive by the fact only a few votes per precinct usually separate the candidates on caucus night.

For example, in 1984 Gary Hart got that "surprise" second-place finish behind Walter Mondale. Only a few thousand more votes and George McGovern would have taken that spot from Hart. (12/2/2003)

Edwards vs. Gephardt

Sen. John Edwards announced his new trade plan (see story below) and Rep. Dick Gephardt challenged Edwards as a “Johnny come lately.” The Des Moines Register reports on the flap:

"He's a Johnny-come-lately on this issue," Gephardt said by telephone after a campaign stop in Cedar Rapids. "He had a chance to vote against the China agreement, and he voted for it."

"I've been there over the years consistently trying to get these things into these treaties," Gephardt said. "If we had had the help of people like (Edwards), who favored these treaties, we would have been able to get these standards in these treaties."

The mill worker’s son responded:

"All you have to do is talk to North Carolina textile workers," he said. "They will tell you to a person how strongly I supported them and how personally I take their problems." (12/2/2003)

Squeezing out third

The Quad City Times covers Sen. John Edwards’ latest tour:

For the most part, however, Edwards has steered clear of the intramural squabbles that have embroiled Gephardt, Dean and Kerry in Iowa, and that may be a plus going into the home stretch, party leaders say.

.“That’s repulsive to a lot of people,” said Joel Miller, the chairman of the Linn County Democratic Party, who says Edwards is wise to keep out of it. Holding his fire also has meant that criticism leveled over the Iraq war resolution has landed more on Kerry than Edwards, Miller added.

.Still, Miller says he sees Edwards trailing Dean, Gephardt and Kerry in eastern Iowa. “I think he could squeeze into third ... but it’s going to be tough,” he added. (12/2/2003)

Edwards’ struggles

Sen. John Edwards continues to receive attention, if not votes, in his candidacy in Iowa. And Edwards woke up to Iowa’s first snowstorm today (welcome to Iowa winter…). Yesterday he tramped through Southern Iowa -- known as the less populated, poorer part of the state -- on his “Working for Us Tour.”

Today Edwards is unveiling his plan to stop the "revolving door" between government and lobbying, including an end to campaign contributions from federally registered lobbyists.

The Associated Press reports that his proposal includes:

*Restrictions on moving between lobbying and government jobs. Lobbyists would be banned from taking senior government jobs with responsibility for the areas in which they advocated, and there would be a five-year ban on senior administration officials lobbying.

*Require lobbyists to disclose every two weeks which members of Congress or the administration they have met, and how much they spent lobbying.

*Ban all members of Congress and the president from taking money from federally registered lobbyists.

*Ban congressional pay hikes until the budget deficit ends, and ban bonuses to political appointees.

*Restriction on companies that won major contracts for work in Iraq, including restricting profits and reviewing existing contracts to identify "mismanagement and profiteering."

Yesterday in stops at Corydon, Lamoni, Mt. Ayr, Bedford, Corning, Clarinda, Sidney, and Glenwood, Edwards outlined the steps he will take to create jobs as president, including:

·        Exporting American Products, Not American Jobs. Edwards believes that our tax code should encourage companies to keep jobs here at home. He will give a 10 percent tax cut to corporations that produce goods here and eliminate tax breaks for companies that move jobs overseas.

·        Bringing Jobs and Capital to Hard-Hit Communities. Edwards will create a national venture capital fund that will bring equity and expertise to entrepreneurs and small businesses to create jobs in areas that are hurting. He will also designate hard-hit towns and areas as Economic Revitalization Zones. Tax credits and other assistance will be available to businesses that create jobs in these areas.

·        Investing in Working Americans. Edwards will create the REACH Fund to invest in entrepreneurs in small towns and rural areas that are losing jobs today. Edwards will also double funding for Community Development Financial Institutions to serve urban and other communities overlooked by most banks and other traditional financial institutions.

·        Rewarding Work. John Edwards believes that the way to grow our economy is to grow our middle class—help them save, invest, and create jobs. Edwards rejects George Bush's effort to cut taxes on the unearned wealth of the wealthy and shift the tax burden onto the work of the middle class. (12/3/2003)

Edwards’ lobbying reform

Sen. John Edwards, campaigning at Iowa State University, called for new regulations to govern lobbyist. Edwards would require:

• Prohibiting lobbyists from contributing to congressional and presidential campaigns.

• Requiring them to disclose every two weeks who they met with and how they spent money.

• Banning federal officials from lobbying the government for five years after leaving office.

The five year ban was implemented by President Clinton when he took office in 1993, then he revoked the order as his presidency was ending, leaving an earlier one-year ban in place. Edward’s delivered the required bashing of President Bush in his address at the event as well according to the Des Moines Register:

Edwards also has accused the Bush administration of rewarding companies with ties to administration officials with contracts to rebuild postwar Iraq.

Edwards proposed capping contractors' profits. "We need to end the sweetheart deals for Halliburton and stop the war profiteering in Iraq," he said.

Edwards also used the recent expansion of drug benefits for Medicare as an example of Bush rewarding the lobbyist of Bush’s rich friends. (12/4/2003)

Illegal aliens health care access

Senator John Edwards Thursday criticized Republican leaders in Congress who agreed to bring up legislation to limit Hispanic immigrants' access to health care. Desperate to get needed votes to pass the Medicare bill in the House, Dennis Hastert (R-IL), Tom DeLay (R-TX) and other Republican House leaders made a late-night deal with Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) last week. In exchange for Rohrabacher's vote, the leaders agreed to move forward with a Rohrbacher bill requiring that hospitals immediately report undocumented immigrants to the Border Patrol. Hospitals would have to give the name of any undocumented immigrants within two hours of treatment.

"The Republicans sacrificed health care for Hispanic children in order to win big profits for HMOs and drug companies," Edwards said. "In exchange for one congressman's vote on this terrible bill, the Republicans agreed to move ahead with a proposal that would scare Hispanics away from hospitals, and almost certainly cause Hispanics to die unnecessarily. This is unconscionable."

Edwards discussed the issue at a town hall meeting at La Familia Medical Center, a Santa Fe, New Mexico health clinic where more than a fifth of the patients are undocumented. (12/5/2003)

Edwards takes on Credit Cards

On the final day of his "Working for All of Us" Iowa tour, Senator John Edwards (D-NC) Thursday pledged to take on credit card companies that employ abusive practices, which plunge their customers deeper and deeper into debt.

Edwards noted that middle-class families are borrowing more just to make ends meet, and, as a result, are plunging deeper and deeper into debt. In Iowa alone, personal bankruptcy filings increased 290 percent in the last decade, and the average debt carried by an in-state graduate of Iowa State University, the University of Iowa, or the University of Northern Iowa climbed to $20,225 in 2002. Instead of helping customers get out of debt, irresponsible predatory lenders, payday lenders, and credit card companies are now employing abusive practices that prey on customers when they can least afford it.

Credit card companies in particular are taking advantage of customers inexperienced with credit and using late fees and hidden fees to increase company profits. Credit card late fees have risen from $1.7 billion in 1996 to $7.3 billion in 2002, and credit card giant MONA just set a record late fee for prime customers of $39, which is often supplemented by hefty interest charges and increases. (12/5/2003)

Edwards in Florida

Sen. John Edwards chose the DieBold electronic voting machines as his way to beat up on President Bush while attending the Florida Democrat Convention according to Associated Press:

"We now have touch screen voting machines that some people think are just as bad as a butterfly ballot," Edwards said, referring to the confusing ballots that became notorious in the botched Florida election in 2000. "What makes this worse is that one of George W. Bush's fund-raising Pioneers said he wanted to help Ohio 'deliver' its electoral votes to George Bush," Edwards said.

Edwards called on Bush to return $100,000 donated to his campaign by Walden O'Dell, head of DieBold Election Systems, who collected the money. (12/6/2003)

Edwards responds to Dean

Senator John Edwards (D-NC) released the following statement Sunday in response to Governor Howard Dean's speech in Columbia, South Carolina:

"While we all agree on the need to bring working class people of all races together to fight for better jobs, health care and education, coming to the South during the Sunday church hour to tell Southerners what they should believe is not the way to reach out to Southern Democratic voters.

"Democrats like Terry Sanford and Jim Hunt won in the South by running campaigns based on solid values and progressive ideas that would help lift all Americans, regardless of the color of their skin or economic background. As a Southerner and North Carolinian, I am proud of that tradition.

"I have no intention of ceding the values debate to George Bush -- anywhere in America. His values are not America's values and Democrats cannot be scared to take him on. There is only one way to win this fight, and that is by taking it directly to George Bush in every region of the country." (12/7/2003)

Edwards against Internet voting

Senator John Edwards: Calls on Michigan to Abandon Unfair Internet Voting Scheme.

In America, everyone should have the right to vote, and everyone should have the same chance to vote. Yet our country also has a shameful history of blocking the polling place to people based on their race or poverty. Because of that history, we have a special responsibility to make sure our voting rules do not discriminate against minorities or the poor, intentionally or not.

Michigan's Internet voting scheme does not live up to that responsibility. The Digital Divide is simply a reality today. Wealthier families are more than twice as likely to have Internet access at home than poorer families. Whites are 50 percent more likely to have Internet access at home than African Americans and 90 percent more likely than Hispanics.

Until we have closed the digital divide, Michigan's Internet voting scheme will reduce the influence of poor and minority voters-the very groups who have historically suffered discrimination at the polling place. John Edwards believes this is wrong. He asks the Florida Democratic Party to join him in calling on the Michigan Democratic Party to abandon its Internet voting system. (12/7/2003)

Florida Dem Convention:

I’d rather be in Iowa or New Hampshire

Democrat candidates for President gathered in Buena Vista, Florida for their party’s state convention and preached to over 4,000 of the faithful. The state’s Democrats are still bruised from the recount and subsequent loss to George Bush. They are also upset over the loss of the straw poll and the $100,000 per candidate they were going to collect for allowing the candidates on the straw poll ballot. In addition, the state’s influence in choosing a candidate is nearly zip -- the state’s March 9th primary date is so late that a one of the candidates will already have the delegate-count needed to secure the nomination.

Howard Dean once again showed that he is the candidate with money and organization. Dean’s union friends helped him pack the convention hall. Dean shelled out $50,000 to the Florida Democrat Party so he could receive special treatment. The real cost for Dean in Florida is probably more in the $100,000 range. For the $50,000 price tag, Dean's staff were able to hold campaign-training seminars for their supporters. None of the other candidates made as much effort. Dean’s campaign was also able to practice their National Democrat Convention technique by staging a made-for-television arrival on the convention stage. Hundreds of supporters screamed his name, waved signs, blew whistles, carried banners and delayed the start of his speech with a 10-minute demonstration.

Away from the stage-managed events, Clark and Dean both struggled a bit during their news conferences. Clark, who has praised President Bush and attended a GOP fund-raiser, was repeatedly asked why he did not complain about the 2000 election before he became a Democratic candidate for president.

Florida recount – sound bytes from the candidates:

"We had more votes. We won," North Carolina Sen. John Edwards said.

"I never thought the frontline for democracy would be the United States in the beautiful state of Florida," former Gen. Wesley Clark said.

"Florida is the place where America's democracy was wounded," Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry said. (12/7/2003)

Feb. 3^rd hopes

The NY Times caries a story about how John Edwards, Wesley Clark and Joe Lieberman are now pinning their hopes on the Super Seven Feb. 3rd primary. However, most agree if Dean has blow-outs in Iowa and New Hampshire then the Feb. 3rd round is probably mute. (12/7/2003)

Death Penalty

The Boston Globe has an article on how Democrats are changing their stripes on the death penalty:

All six upper-tier candidates are on record as supporting at least some application of the death penalty. Moreover, four were opponents who have modified their views -- Howard Dean, John F. Kerry, Joseph I. Lieberman, and John Edwards. Richard A. Gephardt has been a consistent death penalty supporter, and Wesley K. Clark initially said after joining the race in September that he backed a moratorium on executions, but has voiced support of capital punishment as a punishment option for "the most heinous crimes."

The three Democrats who steadfastly oppose the death penalty are all lower-tier candidates in the polls -- Dennis J. Kucinich, Carol Moseley Braun, and the Rev. Al Sharpton. All three have said they would seek to abolish capital punishment. (12/8/2003)

Edwards on Medicare bill

Sen. John Edwards released the following comments about President Bush’s signing of the Medicare bill:

"The president should have vetoed the Medicare bill, not signed it. Instead of strengthening Medicare for our seniors, the bill signed today surrenders Medicare to the drug companies and HMOs. President Bush missed a great moment to get Medicare right for generations to come.

"When I am president, I will rewrite this drug bill to put patients and people above drug companies and HMOs. I will clamp down on skyrocketing drug costs--empowering the government to negotiate better drug prices, allowing reimportation of drugs from other countries, and stopping misleading drug advertisements. I will eliminate the $12 billion slush fund for HMOs, the destructive 'experiment' of pushing seniors into HMOs, and the new tax shelters for the wealthy that actually undermine the Medicare program. And I will take the savings from cutting this waste and use them to protect Medicare and protect the low-income and already-insured seniors who are injured by this travesty of a drug bill." (12/9/2003)

Edwards campaign

Sen. John Edwards has been announcing minor elected officials’ endorsements of him in S. Carolina, New Hampshire and Iowa, including a County Attorney from Iowa. However, in an effort to counter Dean’s endorsement by the teachers union in New Hampshire he is sending out 8,000 letters to teachers. New Hampshire teachers and school board members today launched "Educators for Edwards" with a letter to thousands of fellow teachers and educators across the state, inviting them to join them in supporting Senator John Edwards for President.

"John Edwards has a firsthand commitment to improving education that is unparalleled by anyone else in this race," wrote the Educators for Edwards steering committee in the letter, signed by educators in every region of the state.

"He knows the value of a quality education for every child because it's what gave him the chance to be where he is today, and he's proven it by proposing the most ambitious plan for improving education of anyone in the race." (12/10/2003)

Edwards: reform contracting

At a town hall meeting at the Merrimack Restaurant in Manchester, Edwards proposed a series of reforms to get politics out of contracting:

* First, he would block political donations from government contractors. Under his proposal, corporations, senior executives, lobbyists and directors would be barred from making donations to presidential candidates and political parties for one year before or after bidding on a major government contract.

* Second, Edwards would break the link between government procurement and private sector contracting jobs. Private sector executives seeking government contracts would not be able to take official contracting jobs for 12 months, and similarly, those with responsibility for contracting would not be able to go to firms seeking contracts for 12 months.

* Third, Edwards outlined steps to require that Washington demand corporate responsibility from its private-sector contractors. As president, he would sign an executive order to force federal contractors to pay their executives responsibly and to fully disclose their top executives' pay, including perks and stock options. "CEOs should not receive a raise when companies are laying off workers and stocks are falling."

* Fourth, Edwards proposed strong new disclosure requirements for contractors lobbying the government. Today, lobbyists for government contractors disclose their clients only once every six months and do not have to reveal the politicians they meet with, the issues they discuss or how they spend their money. Edwards would require lobbyists to report these details every two weeks on the Internet. This will shine a bright light on the backroom meetings and secret favors that too often influence government contracts.

* Finally, Edwards proposed measures to stop profiteering off government contracts in Iraq. The Bush administration signed no-bid contracts for Iraqi reconstruction with Halliburton and Bechtel that cost taxpayers billions. Edwards will stop profiteering by permitting companies only to get a reasonable profit on their Iraq contracts. This is similar to excess profit caps imposed during both World Wars. Edwards will also take back ill-gotten gains by ordering a top-to-bottom review to identify mismanagement and profiteering, similar to the Truman Commission during World War II. (12/11/2003)

Edwards: investigate China’s currency

"Enough is enough. We've lost over 2 million manufacturing jobs and President Bush still won't lift a finger to help American workers. It's long past time to stand up to China's abusive trade practices that are costing us jobs," Sen. John Edwards said in response to the Bush administration stating it would not formally investigate China for currency manipulation.

China is manipulating the value of the yuan to give its industry added advantage. This unfair trade practice distorts exchange rates, giving Chinese goods an artificial price advantage of up to 40 percent over U.S. products. Meanwhile, the U.S. is running over a $100 billion trade deficit with China, the largest in history between any two countries.

In a Senate hearing yesterday, an administration trade official ruled out launching a formal investigation of China's currency manipulation. The official said that action under Section 301 of the Trade Act was not warranted. Edwards believes that the U.S. government should immediately use its legal rights under both Section 301 and through the World Trade Organization. (12/11/2003)

Edwards’ new idea

The Boston Globe, readying for their endorsement of a candidate prior to New Hampshire primary, interviewed candidate John Edwards and reports that Edwards wants a Domestic Intelligence Agency:

With foreign policy on the national agenda, Edwards revealed that two key Clinton administration officials, Richard Holbrooke, once US ambassador to the United Nations, and Samuel Berger, Clinton's last national security adviser, have been unofficially tutoring him on international affairs. He proposed a Domestic Intelligence Agency to spy on suspected terrorists living in the United States, a task now left to the FBI.

"The FBI is structurally incapable of doing their job," he said, adding that he would also create a civil rights watchdog agency to keep tabs on all domestic investigations. (12/11/2003)

Edwards: war profiteers

Senator John Edwards today released the following statement in response to reports that Halliburton overcharged the government for services delivered as part of the no-bid contracts it received to help rebuild Iraq:

"Based on today's report, we now see the truth: Halliburton is engaged in war profiteering, plain and simple. A company that donates huge sums to the president and once was chaired by the vice president is now war profiteering at taxpayer expense.

"This war profiteering is poison to America--poison to Americans' faith in government and poison to our allies' perception of our motives in Iraq. We need an antidote now. First, we need a cap on profits from Iraq contracts to stop the profiteering. Companies should not be able to make more profits in Iraq than they make from ordinary, competitively bid contracts. Franklin Delano Roosevelt instituted an excess profits cap during World War II to stop the kind of profiteering we are seeing right now. It was good enough for FDR, and it should be good enough for us.

"Second, we need to stop the cycle of contributions for contracts. I will ban corporations and their senior executives, lobbyists, and directors from donating political cash to presidential candidates and national parties within a year of bidding on a major government contract.

"Those are just two parts of my broader plan to clean up Washington. There is nothing our country needs more." (12/13/2003)

Edward’s "Real People Express"

Sen. John Edwards announced that North Carolina African Americans for Edwards Saturday are launching a series of trips to South Carolina to reach out to primary voters.

More than a dozen volunteers will board "Real People Express" vans in Charlotte Saturday morning for a day of door-to-door canvassing in Greenville and Spartanburg, South Carolina. Representative Beverly Earle is leading the delegation.

This is the first of a series of road trips the group will undertake before South Carolina's February 3rd primary. The group has been actively phoning and writing to South Carolina and other key primary states to reach voters one at a time.

The group will be met in Spartanburg and Greenville by supporters from South Carolina. The canvass builds on the momentum Edwards has gained in the last week from two new endorsements and a new South Carolina poll from The Pew Research Center showing Edwards leading the field by a significant margin. Edwards claims more announced endorsements from South Carolina elected and Party officials than all other candidates combined.

Edwards is the only Democratic presidential candidate who has won an election in the South. In his 1998 election, Edwards won 90 percent of the African American vote. v

Edward’s optimism

Sen. John Edwards in a keynote speech at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco warned Democrats that the Republican failures in the 1996 and 1998 elections show the price of running on anger. Edwards built the speech on offering optimism to America:

"We’re all angry at what George W. Bush has done to our country, our values, and our way of life," Edwards said. "We all know what we’re running against-now we need to tell the American people what kind of future we’re running toward.

"The Republicans were so blinded by their hatred of President Clinton they thought all they had to do was remind the electorate how much they hated him. Well they were dead wrong. In 2004, I will make this a contest of ideas, not divisive ideology.

"Some in my party want to duck the values debate. They want to say to America: we’re not interested in your values; we want to change the subject to anything else. You can’t tell voters what to believe or what to vote on. It doesn’t work that way in the South, the North, the East or here in the West."

"This president says he wants to have a values debate, and that’s exactly what I will give him. On almost every issue, George Bush's values are not America's values. This administration values wealth over work, special interests over our interests, secret meetings over open debate, the privileged few over the rest of us."

"Some Democrats want to leave these tough issues alone." Edwards said. "I say let's take them head on because that's the only way we can replace what comes out of Washington today with what America really values."

"This election isn’t just about ending the Bush presidency; it’s about a new beginning for America. A new beginning for our working middle class. A new beginning for our schools. A new beginning for health care and children. A new beginning of reform in Washington. And a new beginning for America’s role in the world," said Edwards. (12/13/2003)

Edward’s foreign policy speech: (12/15/2003)

Sen. John Edwards in Cedar Rapids offered his own foreign policy address on the same day that Howard Dean is to make his foreign policy address in California. Click here for the text of the speech:

John Edwards

"Today, every American and people all over the world are waking up to the good news that Saddam Hussein is no longer free. But no citizens are happier to learn of his capture than the Iraqi people who endured his torture and oppression for decades. They have been waiting to hear of his demise and we are all grateful that they finally received this welcomed news.

"Since last March our men and women in uniform have been working with courage and commitment to help the Iraqi people create the country of their dreams: one that is free, democratic, and free from Saddam Hussein's terrible reign. We are all so proud of their efforts not just today, but every day as they work tirelessly to bring democracy to Iraq.

"Our military leaders have accomplished a great success. I hope President Bush will use this opportunity to chart a course in Iraq that will bring in our allies in a meaningful way to achieve a democratic and peaceful Iraq."  (12/15/2003)

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