Edwards’ on Obama
EmailABC News’ David Muir and Raelyn Johnson: In the final stretch to the Iowa caucuses, John Edwards traveled across Iowa, telling voters he was energized by the momentum in his campaign.
But during a stop in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, Edwards was forced to talk about one of his rivals — Sen. Barack Obama.
"Barack Obama, you think you can beat him?" shouted a voter over a crowd of people gathered at a house party.
"Can I beat him? Oh yeah," responded Edwards, "We have some substantive differences and we have some differences on what needs to be done." He added that Sen. Obama was a good man and a very good presidential candidate.
But the voter shot back, "He’s not ready yet."
"Well, you’re saying that," said Edwards before adding, "but keep saying it. Particularly between now and tomorrow night."
Edwards went on to talk about what he calls the "fundamental differences" between he and Obama–which is negotiating universal helathcare.
At that moment, Elizabeth Edwards, on hand to introduce her husband, interrupted the discussion.
"I heard a radio commercial for Sen. Obama that indicated that his health care program covers more Americans than either Sen. Clinton’s or John’s. That is actually not true. There are actually 15 million people or so. I’d be one of those, the hardest to insure and the people who are the new graduates from college or high school coming out are people who are left out of his system. It’s just complete untruth. And I just want to make sure that when you all hear it or if you’re out canvassing and you hear that from somebody, that clarify. I mean I’ll speak on behalf of Sen. Clinton as well. Both Sen. Clinton’s and John Edwards health care plans cover 100% of Americans and Sen. Obama’s does not."
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A Clinton victory will reinforce that the establishment machine power still alive and combined with money can still overshadow the voice of the people.
An Obama win will show that MONEY can buy media and manipulate democracy by bringing untested, inexperienced candidates WITHOUT proven business or political leadership to the front line, and that is a risk!. Obama is a “nice” but risky proposition to our country.
An Edwards win in Iowa will make the Democrats race a real contest and that will be good for the party. He probably doesn’t have the same amount of money than Hillary or Obama; but he has name recognition for real and people can easily be motivated to support his candidacy. he has the best progressive ideas, real agenda and is working hard for the nomination. Edwards wants to change and re energize the Democratic party from the base up, the middle class across party lines; he is fighting for a real chance…no just slogans, his message is clear and sound. When the big press give him enough coverage his message will reach across party lines to independents and some republicans fed up with Washington gridlock and the powers of big corporations and BIG MONEY.
Go Edwards! show that no one can buy the nomination, not even with the Washington oiled machine, lobbyists, big powers or big TV celebrities or big Hollywood and the controlled media.
Posted by: Tom_Iowa | January 2, 2008, 7:32 pm 7:32 pm
yawn … aren’t sonny & cher done already? love ya madly, liz, but i suspect you and john will be off the broken bus and back in your mansion by next friday. godspeed!
obama/biden ’08
Posted by: sickofher | January 2, 2008, 7:46 pm 7:46 pm
Hey Tom_Iowa… your comments shows you are so confused about a lot of issues in this country. Are you reading from magazines or are you really HERE with us? Look deeply into Obama… you’ll see someone really enthusiaitic about changing and transforming this country. I bet you, we really need him NOW. I’m very honest about this.
Posted by: vee | January 2, 2008, 8:18 pm 8:18 pm
There should be no apostrophe in the headline.
(Even if the goal is to pluralize ‘Edwards’ to refer to both John and Elizabeth, an apostrophe is inappropriate.)
Posted by: Steve | January 2, 2008, 8:45 pm 8:45 pm
Car insurance is a mandate. Does everyone have it? No.
No Child Left Behind is a federal mandate. Is that working? No.
Odds are, even with a mandate, 15 percent of the population will go without health insurance under the Edwards and Clinton plans…just look at what’s going on in Massachusetts, where they’re now excluding 20 percent of people from their mandated universal coverage plan.
Get over it, Edwards, your road ends in Iowa.
Posted by: nctodc | January 2, 2008, 9:24 pm 9:24 pm
This is exactly the crazy arrogance and disconnect that caused me to jump ship from the Edwards campaign and join the Obama campaign. John has no clue, and his crazy aunt has finally creeped out of the closet. I never realized how phoney and power hungry he was until around September of 2007.
Posted by: Mike | January 2, 2008, 9:27 pm 9:27 pm
Tom_Iowa:
You’re assessment is spot on and John has the fight & skills we need to fight the machine and get some power for the taxpayers, who now have no representation.
Posted by: figgypuddin | January 2, 2008, 10:51 pm 10:51 pm
For some of the people that are attacking Mrs. Edwards; well they should really learn more about how much power and ccontrol has Michelle Obama over his man. He is the one wearing the pants in the house. I know them both for many years and have witnessed that way before they both became famous.
ow about Michelle…she is not very much loved here in Chicago due to her arrogance and temperament. People really don’t owe them anything and he is not the one with real political power here. Chicago is Delay’s land and now that his political strategist Axelrod is managing the Obama campaign..the whole thing makes you wonder what is next?
Posted by: Liz-Chicago | January 2, 2008, 10:56 pm 10:56 pm
or some of the people that are attacking Mrs. Edwards; well they should really learn more about how much power and ccontrol has Michelle Obama over her man (Barack). He is the one wearing the pants in the house. I know them both for many years and have witnessed that way before they both became famous.
ow about Michelle…she is not very much loved here in Chicago due to her arrogance and temperament. People really don’t owe them anything and he is not the one with real political power here. Chicago is Delay’s land and now that his political strategist Axelrod is managing the Obama campaign..the whole thing makes you wonder what is next?
Posted by: LIz-Chicago | January 2, 2008, 10:58 pm 10:58 pm
Obama’s messages of “rising above partisan politics” and “bringing people together” appear to have drifted by the wayside when John Edwards began gaining momentum in Iowa. Since then he has been in attack mode, and regrettably, he has not limited his assault to John Edwards.
It seems that Obama has Gore and Kerry in his sights as well. How can we trust him to bring people together as a nation when he is taking a divisive approach within his own party?
By using attacks on Democrats, he is sabotaging his own platform—bringing people together through finding common ground. He has based his whole campaign on these ideals, but when the going has gotten tough, he has clearly decided not to follow his own message.
John Edwards appears gracious today toward Obama, even complimenting him, while be a target of Obama’s attacks. Edwards’s character and integrity have been evident throughout the campaign, but more importantly, when it comes down to the wire, his commitment to a higher standard has remained.
Posted by: tessablue | January 2, 2008, 11:29 pm 11:29 pm
Senator Obama has a big heart, and that heart is in the right place. Is he electable? Will more than 50% of America vote for him? We’d like to believe they would. We’d like to believe America has changed, wouldn’t we? Obama lets us feel better about ourselves — and as we look out the window at the guy snowplowing his driveway across the street, we want to believe he’s changed, too. But are we dreaming?”
Posted by: Karen | January 3, 2008, 12:34 am 12:34 am
You are so wrong about Obama. He is a sweet pep talker and has people fooled like you about change. What changes. Even if he wins in Iowa, he is going nowhere in the bigger states. I am a Hillary Clinton voter but if she loses I would prefer Edwards to Obama. Obama is a fake, liar, no experience and needs estensive training on foreign policy. Yes, he claims he can run this country, but into the ground and it would be a worse disaster than Bush did. America is not ready for him and he will not win the nomination if that is what your thinking. He will only win a few states and go back to being a senator. That’s good enough for him. He run of the mouth Michelle can take a rest then.
Posted by: Mariann Pepitone | January 3, 2008, 8:36 am 8:36 am
If Edwards was not in this race, I wonder how many Edwards voters would vote for Barack Obama? Edwards is delusional if he thinks his presence in this primary will do anything but split the anti-Hillary vote, ensuring her victory. People want an alternative to Hillary, but two alternatives will only ensure her victory. Edwards needs to join forces with Barack as his VP, imidiatedly. The combined campaigns can easily defeat Hillary.
Posted by: EdwardsCantWin | January 3, 2008, 1:38 pm 1:38 pm
Immediately too!
Posted by: EdwardsCantWin | January 3, 2008, 1:43 pm 1:43 pm