I went to see Elizabeth Edwards in Brentwood, NH at a stunning home in a beautiful country setting right outside Exeter last Friday. She "hadn't done one of these in quite some time," but she wasn't rusty and the packed house of about 100 people were happy to get a chance to see our favorite Elizabeth talk about the campaign.
She gave us a good look at her husband and who he really is, the broad strokes on the rationale for the Edwards message, discussed the 50 state strategy, answered a few questions and she met Margery, a wise sage, published poet and a Great American.
Follow me below the fold for all the video of Mrs. Edwards in Brentwood.
First to Mrs. Edwards's remarks:
Video: Elizabeth Edwards: The Accidental Populist (6:40)
I have to tell you actually I've been doing a lot of other things, breast cancer stuff and I did the women's conference in California with other spouses which an extraordinarily interesting experience. For one thing there a lot of tall spouses. laughter
And they all wear heels laughter and I am definitely a comfortable shoes kind of a Mom.
She starts to talk about what this election means and tells us that this election is about priorities, change and "standing up to a lot of people that have been controlling things for a long time in Washington." I couldn't agree more. It is a change election and it is about challenging the entrenched power in the system that has been causing the rot and decay, the lack of accountability and the worst kind of results in our policies for ordinary citizens of our country for 20 years now.
John has actually been doing this his whole life. There was an article several months ago in The New Republic magazine called The Accidental Populist and the truth is that the populist part was probably right ... it was the accidental part the was wrong. John's policies are an absolute outgrowth of every experience that he has had.
She goes into the story of John's parents and the work they did when he was growing up. Yes, his father worked in a mill, but I learned some new stuff at this event. First, Mr. Edwards worked his way up to plant manager for Milliken. Second, he was fired because he didn't have a college degree even though the plant he managed was a model of efficiency. Wallace Edwards even had to train his college educated replacement before leaving the company. Furthermore, the mother had to give up a small business that she loved to get a job as a mail carrier because that is the only way the family could afford health insurance.
Accidental Populist? How about: Actual Populist. Because I've got to tell you that he's the only one in the whole race that has the policies and credibility to bring this message to the country as the nominee for the Democratic party. This life experience will serve our party well with Edwards as our nominee because the time is right for the Democratic party to return to its roots as the sole advocate for working men and women in this country that have virtually no voice in their government today.
When our candidates act just the same as the Republicans do on issues like trade then we are sowing the seeds of our own defeat. It's that simple. Without a clear and unambiguous choice then we get what we get. I participated in a diary yesterday about the Kyl-Lieberman vote and a kossack there said, "In other words, when you give people a choice between a Republican and a Republican, they'll choose the Republican every time." That's exactly right. And there is nothing accidental about the road John Edwards has taken to the policy positions and agenda that he is now running on.
So John, when he has a policy for universal health care so that nobody has to leave a job they love or stay at a job they hate - that's not accidental. That's the inevitable result of all of his experiences growing up. When he talks about College for Everyone, he's thinking about his father who never had the chance or about himself who was the first person to go to college and how difficult it was for him.
These policies are the result of how he was raised.
When he talks about trade, he thinks about that little town he grew up in, Robbins. That mill his father worked in that that college grad was then the supervisor of? That mill is gone; it's closed... The people that worked beside John's dad and the people John went to high school with who stayed in that town, bought houses in that town, he sees what has happened to them... So they're basically stuck... Because America forgot about towns like Robbins, the government certainly did. John didn't and his policies with respect to trade are born of his own experiences and what he sees around him whenever he goes home.
And many millions just like the residents of Robbins, SC are also stuck in an area of this country devastated by policies like NAFTA and the new trade deals that our party supports without question in Washington, DC. Edwards can sell his message in places like that all over the country in a way that the other candidates in this field can not. He can go home to these areas of the country to campaign and win and he can take our party home to a victory in November 2008 as a result.
We segue here to the next clip which covers the 50 state strategy.
Video: Elizabeth Edwards: The 50 State Strategy (5:47)
Mrs. Edwards starts this clip with a great joke about how Edwards would be the first president to have majored in textiles at college and then she discusses how his work as a trial lawyer translates well to the current race.
He stood up against insurance companies, trucking companies, pharmaceutical companies all who thought because they had more money than the person on the other side that they would get their way.
It happens in Washington why shouldn't it happen in the courtrooms of North Carolina. Well it doesn't happen if that normal human being, normal person, fighting that corporation has a real champion. Someone with strength and a voice and the determination to do whatever is necessary, to work as hard as they need to work to make the case as strongly as they need to make it about why this corporation is wrong and why this normal working person that is just trying to do the right thing ought to get a fair shake. And he did it over and over and over again, unbelievably successfully.
She talks about Edwards's success with the Patient's Bill of Rights here as another example of a fight against HMO's in the context of governance that Edwards won. His support for organized labor comes from the same life experience.
We have an opportunity to have that kind of a champion [in the White House] ... and all we have to do is get him nominated because if we get him nominated he's going to win because he's going to put in play states that other candidates will just right off.
She talks about her frustration with the electoral strategy in 2004 and what she hears developing as the narrative today. The Kerry campaign never ran a single ad in the state of North Carolina because it was considered a waste of time. "You can't win in North Carolina." In 2004 the strategy was to hold the states Gore won in 2000 and add Florida. Today she hears the narrative developing to hold the states Kerry won in 2004 and win Ohio.
We were in Louisiana for about a minute and a half before we pulled out of there. We never went to Tennessee at all except to collect campaign money. No reason to campaign there, Al Gore had lost. Kansas? Thomas Franks wrote a whole book about why you can't win Kansas. Oklahoma? Could there be a more Republican state?
Well, maybe: Montana. laughter
Everyone of those states has a Democratic governor. hmmm Democrats can win. But we don't try do we? We don't go to those states and try to win. John will. John pledges that this is a 50 state strategy. We probably won't win Utah, but the truth of the matter is that we sure won't win if we don't play. If the Red Sox don't show up in Colorado then they're losing that game. And I think that's maybe the only was they're going to lose it.
This was taped on Friday October 26, 2007. Smart lady that Mrs. Edwards.
The best candidate against the leading Republicans in those battle ground states is not close. It's John by a considerable distance.
Rasmussen head to head polling backs up this assertion. From a recent kos diary:
Edwards Dominates Rasmussen Polling in October
Add October to the list. Edwards has outperformed Clinton and Obama in Rasmussen general election polling (and most general election polling) since the race began, and this month is no different...
I suggest that you use these results, along with other statewide and general election polling, to determine who you think the most electable Democrat is. Though I think that the answer is obvious. Links to every pollster I mention to verify results, as well as a review of general election polling that makes it very clear that John Edwards is the most electable Democrat...
Donna Brazille is quoted in the Philadelphia Inquirer:
Political Wire: Quote of the Day
I want to see if John Edwards will say to Hillary Clinton in front of everyone: 'You're not electable, and you know it, and you're going to hurt people down the ballot.' It's time to stop whispering. It's getting to be midnight.
It's not a whispering campaign, Ms. Brazille. And towns like Robbins all over this country are well past midnight.
Speaking of whispering campaigns that brings us to our first question at the house party from a volunteer.
Video: Question from a volunteer (7:59)
I had the misfortune to talk to someone on the phone yesterday ... and she said, "why would I vote for a millionaire who talks about poverty?"... I didn't know what answer to give her.
Mrs. Edwards says that with the exception of Dennis Kucinich and Joe Biden, "nobody is hurting in this group," on both sides. And then she launches into a discussion of John's values before politics were even in the mix in their family. The attendees really get into the discussion here:
I'd just like to say something because I'm so upset about what I just heard and the person just said. And I would really like to just add one little thing which is that: tell the person that is Republican propaganda at its most insidious. Tell the person that the greatest presidents we've had have been even wealthier than John. RFK, too, ...
FDR
FDR, right, the greatest social programs have come from the wealthiest presidents.
Mrs. Edwards talks about the irony that the biggest trust buster was Teddy Roosevelt in a party dedicated to perserving and protecting the rights of corporations to operate unfettered by government policies at the time.
Then Margery Benjamin joins the discussion and Mrs. Edwards instinctively hands her the mic so that we can all hear some true wisdom:
It isn't how much money you have when you're running for office, it's who you're taking money from.
Elizabeth: I'm going to have a much better answer next time.
That's all for this event as I'm very backed up in the blogging department, I hope you enjoy the tape of Elizabeth and I know you will.
This diary is another in the continuing guerrilla vlogger series. I'm not associated with the campaign in any way although I do volunteer, but I speak only for myself when blogging. I support Edwards for the nomination and I do all these vlogs as a citizen journalist, as in I'm not paid. I do everything with an ordinary mini-DV, a PC, Movie Maker and free tools available on the web.