When we talk about candidates for office, the real key is always the experiences of people who know the candidate. I present to you the following videos, of real people from Western North Carolina who support John Edwards for President.
I hope you dont mind the slow load time.
I am going to start us off with a charming old lady. Jackie Blanton is from Shelby, NC, and she taught in elementary schools for 51 years.
The next video is from the Sheriff of Madison County, John Ledford. Madison Count is west of Asheville, and was hard hit with some serious flooding in 2004. Although not on Katrina scale, these floods put 75% of the county's biggest town under water. The Sheriff had driven Senator Edwards around before 2004, but it was John's trip back to the state in the middle of campaigning to meet with elected officials and do his job that prompted this endorsement.
(PS- How pathetic is Elizabeth Dole that John Edwards did more for this state while running for President than she did while in the majority?)
This video is short, and is of Brenda Lipscomb of Grover, NC.
I love this next video. It is from Pat Franklin, of Marshall, NC. She supports John because she trusts him, and thinks that we are less safe, largely because of Bush, and she believes she can trust John to fix that.
Shelby attorney David Teddy says it incredibly well:
"John has the vision to bring this country together." "Someone I believe is not a politician but a statesman." "He will look us in the eye and tell us the truth."
You can find a few more testimonials from Western North Carolina by clicking here
As an addition, I thought people might be interested in a little more background on the story that Sheriff Ledford spoke of. In 2004, Hurricane Frances devestated parts of Western North Carolina. Canton was the hardest hit town. Although the town only has 4,000 people as of 2007, in 2004 it suffered over 5 million dollars worth of damage.
A great story about Edwards' trip down there is here. The worst part of the story was that just after Frances hit, Ivan came through and flooded the area a second time.
Through it all Edwards was doing his best to help the people, and got a lot of life long supporters because of his efforts.
Photo Credit to Alan Marler of the Associated Press
The man to the left of Edwards in the picture is Mayor Pat Smathers, who is running for Lt. Gov. of North Carolina in a 4 person primary. You can find out more about Pat at his website here.
To wrap the whole thing up, although Edwards isnt polling at 80% in his home state like some people want him to, his support runs incredibly deep, with many people having absolute belief in his ability to lead this country back from where Dubya has brought us.