I just got back from my first John Edwards townhall meeting. I got on the bandwagen a little late in 2004, so I only saw a few pre-caucus speeches and rallys. And I thought it might be interesting to share some of what went on.
First, Elizabeth. She was there and she looked great. Really kind of glowing. I also just read where she got some good news from her doctors this week and her cancer is particulary receptive to estrogen, which is apparently a good thing.
But there wasn't a mention hardly of her health, which kind of supports my theory that after a while (god willing that she stays healthy) it will kind of go away and won't really influence anyone for or against Edwards. The one thing it might do is get a few people to look closer at him because he is married to her (kind of like how some people liked Laura Bush, so they figured old Georgie wouldn't be so bad---I hate to compare Elizabeth to Laura, but I think you get my point)
He started out with a pretty detailed explanation on a bunch of his positions. He throws everything out there and told us that we may or may not support him in 2008, but we will know his positions on issues. And he does have very concrete, thought out positions. He doesn't dodge the fact that his healthcare plan will cost a lot of money and will entail raising taxes on the wealthiest people. He talked a lot about poverty and pointed out that the top 300,000 earners last year made more than the bottom 125 million earners (I think I have the numbers right). That is pretty astounding and I really wish that people would take this issue more seriously.
He got some kind of left-field questions....one about nuclear weapons and one about the Pentagon budget and how there are planes and other equipement that don't work. Not high on my list of priorties, but.... :) Anyway, his answer was that we have to make sure that the Pentagon is spending wisely, but we need to make sure that the money for the veterans (think Walter Reed) is always there.
He got a question on education and he kind of stumbled on his plan for continuing education for workers. I thought it was kind of ambitious that he even wants a plan on that, so it will be interesting to see what it is.
Someone asked what he would do if Iran had seized 7 of our soldiers. He had a thoughtful reply saying that first he would need to know if we were in their water or ours. He said you would have to admit you were wrong, if it happene that we had strayed into their water and that would help decide what type of response we would have (i.e. how forceful it would be). I thought that was an honest answer.
Those were the most interesting parts, there was a nice crowd on hand. The two older women next to me seemed to be kind of undecided and surprisingly pro-Hillary. That's disappointing....support Obama or Richardson, but I will be very sad if we do end up nominating Hillary.
I did find it refreashing that Edwards does have such strong ideas already in place. I'm not sure if it's good politically, but it is refreshing to listen to someone tell you exactly what they would do if they were President. I don't hear any other candidate doing that.