Elizabeth Edwards Backs Clinton Health Care Plan

Edwards would not back either Dem candidate, but likes idea of a "dream ticket."

ByABC News via logo
April 8, 2008, 7:23 PM

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.