they'll negotiate their power away. That's a fantasy in my judgment. I don't think it'll ever happen. I've been fighting these people my entire life, first for 20 years in courtrooms and now again in public life -
STEPHANOPOULOS: Yeah, but this is also a change for you. You did an interview with the Web site MyDD last year where you were asked specifically about this, do you want to work with the corporations? You said, I want to bring them to the table. Now you've shifted.
EDWARDS: Oh, no, I haven't. What I'm saying is these people have a is proportionate influence on the way the government works, and they are stopping progress. It sure is - and let me be specific, we're talking about this too generically. Drug companies, insurance companies have killed health care reform in America. Oil companies have kept us from protecting the environment by attacking global warming. The biggest multinational corporations have set up a trade system and a set of tax laws that benefit them and profit them but the middle class and working people are struggling as a result. That is wrong, and I want to be the president who fights for the middle class, fights for working people. The kind of people I grew up with, George. I said this last night. This is not abstract or academic for me. It is personal. I see these people and I get - you know, go into their cocktail parties and have these receptions. You've been there. You know how it works.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Does that mean the doors to the White House are closed to them, as well? Don't you have to speak with them if you're going to work out an effective solution of the problems you bring up?
EDWARDS: It is not my job to sit and negotiate with insurance company lobbyists. I mean, I mentioned this last night. This young woman who lost her life, Natalie Sarkisyan, just a few weeks ago because her insurance company, one of the largest in America, would not pay for a liver transplant operation even though she had insurance. They would not pay for it and people say to me as their president, they want me to sit at a table and negotiate with these people? I mean, they're the problem. They're not the solution. And my job is to stand up for the American people against them.
Now, I made this clear last night. I want to do it again. I have no intention of going and fighting with politicians. I actually work with Congress and I will do that as president. It's my job to unify the American people and galvanize them behind this cause but there is a fight with these very powerful entrenched interests.
STEPHANOPOULOS: You also have a fight to get there. You did not win in Iowa. You're behind here in New Hampshire now. Sketch out the path to the nomination and victory for John Edwards. You have much less money than Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. You're behind now. There's no clear path to the next win.
