Yesterday's Edwards Event in Ames

I attended a fundraiser in Ames for Rich Olive that featured John Edwards yesterday. There was a very large crowd (guessing 150 people or so). I had the chance to meet Kevin from Real World Politico. I didn't get emortalized with a picture, but I did have a nice conversation with him. Kevin seems like a common sense Republican (I never thought I would ever say those words together) and did get pictures with Edwards and Dr. Selden Spencer. But anyway, back to the event.

Rich Olive is running for the seat that Stew Iverson held. Olive gave a good speech and 2 things stuck out. He spoke about our education being more than a k-12 system and said that community colleges and our state universities need to be included in the discussion. He also said that renewable energy is more than just ethanol and biodiesel and we need to explore all technologies. Olive is right on both topics.

Despite this being John Edwards' 12th trip to Iowa since the 2004 election, this was my first time hearing him speak. I was most interested in what he would say about Iraq. After hearing Tom Harkin speak earlier in the week , I kept asking myself how Harkin could have voted for the war everytime Harkin brought up Iraq (which was often). Even though Harkin has been outspoken against he war, the fact that he voted for it cut at his credibility on the topic.

Edwards tackled Iraq and his vote for it head on. Right after thanking everyone, Edwards came out saying awhile back he made a tough decision. After careful thought, his vote on the Iraq War was a mistake and he must take reponsibility for it. Edwards got a big ovation when he said, "the path is clear. We must start getting out of Iraq now and the best way to show the world we are getting out is to start getting out." Edwards said he would redeploy 40,000 troops out of Iraq initially with the goal of having all troops out of there in 12-18 months.

Edwards then discussed other events in the world saying that we are reacting to what is happening and asked what are we doing to create the country and world we want our kids to grow up in? He talked about his travels around the world and said that people around the world don't see you, your character and morals. They see US military power, they see genocide in Darfur, they see children born in Africa with Aids. "Where is America?" Edwards asked. "The world needs to see the real America."

The best part of Edwards speech came next. He said that it is time to ask America to be patriotic again. He said that we must gain our independence from oil. Renewable energy is the first step, but it is not enough. We must ask our citizens to start conserving because it is good for the country and good for our children and grandchildren.

I thought Edwards was going to speak more about poverty than he did. He talked about public schools, going to public universities for college and grad school that were supported by tax dollars. "Every step of the way my country has been there for me." He then laid out some things he would do to give people mobility to get out of poverty such as raising the minimum wage, making it easier for unions to organize, crack down on predatory lending, and increase access to college.

He said that it is offensive when the President claims the moral highground while 5 million more Americans living in poverty since 2000. Edwards theme throughout the speech, was "we are better than that." He talked about the social programs that were cut while at the same time billions of dollars in tax breaks went to the oil companies. It is immoral that more money goes to oil companies while less money goes for poor children.

Edwards speech was inspiring. He called on the crowd to get out there and be leaders because we are better than this. I can see why he is so popular. I have a couple of questions for him, but he is near the top of my list of candidates in 08.