John Edwards in NH forcefully calls out Hillary Clinton on Iran vote and article in New York Times
by merbex, Sun Oct 14, 2007 at 04:59:14 PM EDT
I attended the Hudson 'Town Hall' style forum as a blogger for BelowBoston.com . The highlight of the event came during his opening remarks when Edwards addressed the recent vote in the Senate concerning Iran and today's article in the New York Times in which Hilllary Clinton advisers said that vote was meant as going from "primary mode to General Election mode".
Details below the fold.
It was during Edwards opening remarks prior to opening the forum for questions that his "stump speech" underwent a few changes: he offered sharp distinctions between himself and Hillary Clinton but none so sharp as her recent vote concerning Iran. I transcribed the following blockquotes from my digital voice recorder and some statements at the end are unintelligeble due to loud applause. The paragraphs below are also posted at BelowBoston.com:
This weekend in NH John Edwards got the endorsement of Friends of the Earth Action and at events all this weekend he was introduced to interested voters by the President of that organization.
John Edwards does not hesitate to point out clear differences and distinctions between he and Hillary Clinton as he appeals for the votes of New Hampshire residents. He does not shie away from using her name as he outlines for voters where these differences exist.
The first distinction between he and HC was within 2 minutes of his opening remarks and concerned how change that is needed will be effected - by "being willing to take on entrenched interests." i.e. lobbyists. He told the 400 people who took the time to gather at the Hudson Memorial School that he himself has never taken money from a Washington lobbyist and that "to his credit Senator Obama has not in his run for President" but that "Senator Clinton does". That she has taken "millions" from lobbyists. He stated that there will be no change to the system if you "embrace" the lobbyist system. His now standard line about how we shouldn't replace corporate Republicans with corporate Democrats drew sustained applause.
That was just the first shot across the bow of the Hillary Clinton Campaign -- there were more -- and they were more than rhetorical: he directly challenged her judgement and worked the audience on their noted fervor for their First in the Nation Primary by mentioning a quote in an article in today's New York Times which got heavy applause.
The second distinction between Edwards and Hillary Clinton as pointed out by candidate John Edwards came as he was discussing energy policy. Saying he was not in favor of building new nuclear power plants and that "Senator Clinton and Senator Obama have a different position than that.. and you are entitled to know that.""Second, I am not in favor of building more coal fired plants".
When he was leading into his stump speech line( which is effective and gets applause from audiences) about "being 'Patriotic' about something other than War" he led into it differently than I had heard him before:
I think we need a President who, instead of rolling through NH, I promise you this, promise you that, I promise you this.... Uh I hope you you have a sense of me ... I've spent enough time in NH, I know that you do.."
and then the line about being patriotic and he spoke about sacrificing at home and at work by conserving energy.
The third direct distinction between he and Senator Clinton came in his remarks about lessons learned about the Iraq War. He spent a considerable amount of time detailing the recent Senate Iran vote. He commended Senator Biden and Dodd by name for their votes against naming the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization. He said:
"Senator Obama was not present so he did not vote. Senator Clinton voted yes. She is entitled to her vote but I cannot tell you how strongly I disagree with that.
What makes me worried, is what if George Bush invades Iran 6 months from now so we are going to hear again? 'If only I knew then what I knew now?'You know, How long does it take to learn a lesson from the past? We cannot give this President an inch, not an inch.
You know there was story in today's New York Times where some of Hillary Clinton's advisers said that she was moving from Primary mode, on this vote, to General Election mode.
Now, did I miss something? you can tell me. ( Laughter) Did we already have the NH primary? I mean did we already decide who the winner of the NH Primary is?(Murmurs of No, No, and laughter and scattered applause)I think we're actually going to have an election. [Heavy applause drowns out the rest of his sentence] Instead of moving from Primary mode to General Election mode why don't we have 'Tell the truth mode'[Heavy applause and laughter and a couple of woo' hoos' are picked up by the recorder.]We need to be able to trust both the Presidential candidate and the President of the United States.
So, I think there is a lot at stake in this election. I'm going to open the floor to questions Thank you all for coming".
He got questions about Medicare and Social Security which gave him the opportunity to again discuss lobbyists, as well as "telling the truth to the American people" about options for shoring up Social Security saying this subject - Social Security- is an area where it is often hard to get direct answers.He offered a direct answer: he came out in favor of raising the cap for those who make over 200,000 dollars a year. He talked about America's role in the world, education, college costs(he called for a National Teachers School similar to West Point, which judging by watching audience reactions to that the idea it was clearly intriguing to people). It was a typical NH voter forum and Edwards excels sat these forums which gives him an opportunity to expand on his goals and policy points.
His conclusion as he appealed to voters for their vote was compelling because he asked them to base their vote on trust.On whether we as voters can trust the candidate who wants our vote. To look for honesty, integrity, and whether the candidate was being sincere - he asked them to apply that test to him. He told those present that as NH voters, they were "guardians of what kind of President we have" that they get to see more than 30 second sound bites on tv.
Yes they do. And they realize they haven't voted yet. This election is not over. Not to those in that room.
Tags: Hillary Clinton, Iran, John Edwards (all tags)
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