Edwards urges fight against poverty

Edwards enters presidential race, urges fight against poverty
By Michael Finnegan--Los Angeles Times
December 28, 2006
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NEW ORLEANS--With the ruins of New Orleans as his backdrop, former Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards today called on Americans to take action against poverty, global warming and other troubles as he officially launched his 2008 campaign for president.
"We can't wait for someone else to do this for us," the onetime U.S. senator from North Carolina said from a muddy Ninth Ward backyard where volunteers were fixing a home gutted by Hurricane Katrina.
Dressed in blue jeans, sneakers and a work shirt, Edwards outlined his vision of the presidency as a moral force to promote universal health care, higher wages for the working poor and other steps to improve the lives of Americans.
New Orleans, he said, offers a stark illustration of the "two Americas" that he lamented in his 2004 run for president — one for the privileged, and one for those struggling to get by.
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But since then, Edwards has worked to expand his profile for an encore campaign. He has traveled the world to strengthen his foreign policy credentials, working to fill a widely-noted gap in his 2004 resume. He called today for stronger U.S. leadership in stopping "huge atrocities" in Northern Uganda, which he visited a few weeks ago, and the genocide in Sudan.
"We said after Rwanda we'd never let anything like this happen again," he said. "Well, it's happening right now. America needs to lead."
Edwards also voiced regret, as he has in the past, for his Senate vote to authorize the U.S. invasion of Iraq. "I should have never voted for this war," said Edwards, who called for cutting the U.S. military force in Iraq by 40,000 to 50,000 troops.
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I attended the event in Des Moines and wrote about it here...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3032418