Elizabeth Edwards Backs Clinton Health Care Plan
Edwards Declines to Endorse Either Democrat, but Likes Idea of 'Dream Ticket'
By RUSSELL GOLDMAN
April 8, 2008—
Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former presidential candidate John Edwards, remains unwilling to endorse either of the two remaining Democratic contenders, but the health care advocate told ABC News she preferred Sen. Clinton's health plan to Sen. Obama's.
In an interview with "Good Morning America's" Robin Roberts, airing Wednesday, Edwards — who recently began work as a senior fellow at the liberal think tank, the Center for American Progress — said she believed Clinton's health care plan was more inclusive than that of the Illinois senator.
"You need that universality in order to get the cost savings ... I just have more confidence in Sen. Clinton's policy than Sen. Obama's on this particular issue," she said.
BE SURE TO TUNE IN TO "GOOD MORNING AMERICA" WEDNESDAY FOR MORE OF ROBIN ROBERTS' INTERVIEW WITH ELIZABETH EDWARDS.
Edwards, a vocal part of her husband's campaign, has been largely quiet since the former senator dropped out of the race three months ago. She stepped back into the fray, however, last weekend with an attack on Sen. John McCain's health care plan. She argued that neither she, who has breast cancer, nor McCain, R-Ariz., who had skin cancer in the past, could obtain health insurance under his health care proposal.
She said her husband had been in close contact with both the Clinton, D-N.Y., and Obama, D-Ill., campaigns, but was offering "perspective" more than an endorsement.
"Whenever there's a primary, John will call and congratulate whoever's won the latest primary on their performance — and speak to the other candidate. But [what] we have to offer is not so much an endorsement as a perspective on what we found as we crossed the country, on what is the bigger issue and the solutions that seem most realistic," she said.
As to how the contentious Democratic nomination will end, Edwards said she thought letting the race end at the convention was a good idea.
"I don't actually think it's a bad idea to have an open convention, where we actually got to hash out what the differences [between the candidates] were and how important they are," she said.
Edwards said she liked the idea of Clinton and Obama running together on a so-called dream ticket, and discounted the idea of her husband, John, accepting a place as either candidate's running mate.
"[Clinton and Obama] are the two strongest Democrats running. It's hard not to believe that together they are stronger than they would be apart."
Noting her husband's experience as John Kerry's running mate in 2000, Edwards said it was difficult for a onetime adversary to switch tacks and automatically accept another person's positions on everything.
BE SURE TO TUNE IN TO "GOOD MORNING AMERICA" WEDNESDAY FOR MORE OF ROBIN ROBERTS' INTERVIEW WITH ELIZABETH EDWARDS.
"John will make it perfectly clear that he's not in this for any position in the future. The vice presidential race is an extremely difficult one for any candidate. I think people don't understand how hard it is for one to say you've had policies that are somewhat different from the candidate, and then basically you embrace everything the presidential candidate has had to say."
In March 2007, Edwards announced that she had breast cancer, but continued to campaign for her husband. She told "Good Morning America" that she was doing well and had recently seen her physicians.
"I'm doing great. I still have cancer in my bone. I get tested periodically. But it's under control. It doesn't seem to be growing, knock on wood. And I'm continuing taking some sort of treatment for the rest of my life, and hope that medicine catches up with my disease."