Edwards turns passion to war against poverty

By Jean Torkelson, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published July 22, 2008 at 9:02 p.m.
Updated July 22, 2008 at 9:03 p.m.

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Photo by Preston Gannaway © The Rocky

Sen. John Edwards reacts to a question from Isaiah Schaible-McWilliams, 10. The boy and his brothers Dakota, left, and Dravell, center, met Edwards at the University of Denver.

He stumped the nation as the Democratic Party ticket's No. 2 man in 2004. He aspired to be president in 2008.

But former Sen. John Edwards told a Denver audience Tuesday that now he's plunged into a new kind of campaign, "to end poverty as we know it in a generation."

"As long as I'm alive and breathing I'm going to be fighting that fight," said Edwards, who blew in and out of Denver as part of a national tour for his Half in Ten campaign, which refers to the goal of eliminating half of America's poverty in 10 years.

Edwards called his poverty fight "the cause of my life" and said he likes to tell low-income families, "think of me as your megaphone."

Tanned and tie-less, the 55-year-old attorney and former North Carolina senator met the media at the University of Denver and pressed the flesh with admirers. They included a group of young people wearing red T-shirts touting ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, one of four anti-poverty groups that backed Edwards' visit.

Edwards was accompanied by state Senate President Peter Groff, D-Denver, and Sen. Betty Boyd, D-Lakewood, both of whom have sponsored the kind of anti-poverty legislation Edwards is backing.

Edwards said he is also convinced Barack Obama will make the issue a major commitment of his administration. "I am convinced he will do that; he gave me his word he would," Edwards said.

Edwards also batted around some political questions, alluding, with a self-deprecating grin, to his own "remarkably unsuccessful" 2008 presidential campaign. He said it would be "hugely presumptuous" to discuss what kind of vice president Obama should pick.

As for himself?

"I'm not seeking the job," he said. "But anything Senator Obama would ask me to do in his campaign or presidency I would consider seriously."

For now, there are the poverty issues.

Nationally, the Half in Ten campaign is touting such programs as indexing a national minimum wage, expanding child-care tax credits and child-care subsidies, and making sure each state has an earned-income tax credit program (EITC).

Edwards acknowledged that in the four decades since President Lyndon Johnson launched the War on Poverty, total success has been elusive, but said he's still optimistic about eventually eradicating poverty.

"There have been starts and stops," he said. "Some mistakes have been made. Instead of independence we created a cycle of dependency." Nonetheless, he said, such programs as Medicaid, Medicare and Head Start are examples of successes.

• July 23, 2008

  8:36 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  FCZ writes:

  " Two families for the two Americas..."

  National Enquirer more reliable than The New York Times.

• July 23, 2008

  2:49 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  SlouchingTowardBoulder writes:

  "Edwards called his poverty fight "the cause of my life" ...

  Maybe Edwards should make his family the cause of his life.

• July 24, 2008

  7:59 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  ThomasMc writes:

  Haven't you heard? The National Enquirer is now claiming Edwards fathered Bat Boy, and the mother is a space alien!

• July 24, 2008

  2:15 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  SlouchingTowardBoulder writes:

  There's no way that Edwards could have fathered Anthony Weiner (a/k/a "Bat Boy") as there is no resemblance. However, given the same wavy hair, maybe he fathered Lassie?

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