John Edwards' National Press Club Policy Address

National Press Club Policy Address

Jun 22, 2006
Senator John Edwards
Washington, DC

Remarks as Prepared for Delivery

Thank you. It’s good to be here.

I thank you for the opportunity to speak -- this is an important moment in time for our country.

The focus of my speech will be on poverty. But we cannot address an issue like poverty without answering a few basic questions. Questions we ought to be asking ourselves and answers we ought to be demanding from our leaders about how we as a nation are going to confront the very real and very major challenges we face, including the great moral challenge of poverty.

First, what kind of leadership should America be providing in the world? We live in a moment of dramatic change and huge global challenges. Our military power is fortunately strong, and we must keep it that way. But our economic power will be challenged by new forces, and our most important asset, our international moral authority, is not what it ought to be. Far from it. What kind of leadership can address all these fronts and serve us at home as well?

Second, what kind of America do we want, not just today, but twenty years from now, and how do we think we can get there from here? The founders of this country created the country we have today because they dreamed large. They knew there were obstacles, but those obstacles didn’t mean that they decided a less perfect union would be a good compromise. We will never get what we don’t reach for. So in 2006 and the decades to come, for what should we reach?

And last, on a more partisan note, what and for whom do we want our Democratic Party to stand for and fight for?

Those are the questions. I’d like to start with direct answers to these questions.


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