Tag: John Edwards (page 9)

John Edwards was on the Situation Room yesterday. I happened to watch it live and thought both anchors were very negative to him. But, he never lost his cool and gave some excellent answers, particularly on the war in Iraq.

On the minus side, he said executing Saddam was a "good thing." From the transcript:

HENRY: Now, you want to be commander-in-chief. And in your first move, you would take 40,000 to 50,000 U.S. troops out of Iraq. Do you really believe the Iraqi government could survive?

EDWARDS: Here's what I believe: I believe an escalation of our presence in Iraq is a enormous mistake. I think this McCain doctrine doesn't make any sense. There is no military solution to what's happening in Iraq. Everyone knows that. The only solution -- potential solution is a political solution. I mean, the Iraqis are going to have to decide whether they're actually going to have a representative government that includes everybody, including the Sunnis. And that's the only way to ultimately tamp down this violence.

John Edwards is running a different campaign this time around. It's great to see him take such a strong progressive stand:

Edwards said it's not just Iraq that it is chaos and in need of moral leadership from the United States. He said the United States should be leading an end to genocide in Sudan and to atrocities in northern Uganda. He also said the United States should be part of the International Criminal Court, something that Bush has fought against to keep Americans from facing politically motivated prosecutions.

John Edwards was set to announce his bid for the 2008 Democratic nomination for President tomorrow in New Orleans. Due to a glitch on his website which went live with the news today, he made it official.

His campaign platform: Changing America, which includes:

"Providing universal health care for all Americans," "Rebuilding America's middle class and eliminating poverty," and "Creating tax fairness by rewarding work, not just wealth."

Rumor had it that John Edwards was going to announce his candidacy for President last weekend in New Orleans, but it didn't happen.

The Des Moines Register says it will happen next week in Iowa.

Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards plans to announce his candidacy for president next week during a nationwide swing scheduled to include a stop Thursday in Des Moines, Democratic activists in early nominating states said.

The plans indicate that Iowa's lead-off nominating caucuses could be competitive, despite home-state Gov. Tom Vilsack's candidacy for president.

By getting into the race before year's end, Edwards would pre-empt announcements by prospective Democratic candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, on whom national news media attention has focused in recent weeks.

I'm glad. I don't think Vilsack has a prayer and if he doesn't run away with his home state, maybe he'll drop out quick. As to why Edwards is choosing Iowa:

John Edwards is going to announce his 2008 Presidential bid.

Edwards, who represented North Carolina in the Senate for six years, plans to make the campaign announcement late this month from the New Orleans neighborhood hit hardest by Hurricane Katrina last year and slow to recover from the storm.

I'm glad. He has good ideas that need to be heard. I think it's time to expand the talk beyond Hillary and Obama. The more choices the better.

I just returned from a blogger roundtable (much as we had with President Clinton last month)with Sen. John Edwards. About 15 Colorado bloggers attended the get-together at the downtown Denver Hyatt Hotel.

In a nutshell, color me impressed with him and his ideas. It was all q&a, no speeches, for about 45 minutes. Everything was on the record.

Pictures and details of the conversation to follow later this afternoon tonight. Also check out the Colorado blogs on the right side of TalkLeft, many were there and will be writing about the event.

A big thanks to Bobby Clark of Progress Now Action for putting this together.

Update: Other bloggers writing on the event: