John Edwards: An urgent agenda, a stronger stand on issues that matter to him most

Chicago Tribune: THE CONTENDERS: JOHN EDWARDS
John Edwards: An urgent agenda
In his second run for the presidency, North Carolina's favorite son is taking a stronger stand on the issues that matter to him most
By Jim Tankersley | Washington Bureau
December 4, 2007

....Every two weeks from November 2004 to February 2005, Edwards kept a chemotherapy vigil that stretched from morning to late afternoon. His wife says his job was to be there when she woke. He says her slumbering hours gave him what a frantic national campaign had not: "a lot of time to reflect on what I wanted to do as president."

Two years and a cancer remission later, the former North Carolina senator flew to New Orleans to announce another run for the White House. The man America met as a Southerntwanged, hope-is-on-the-way, sunny son of a mill worker emerged in the Lower 9th Ward grimmer, better traveled and quicker to attack, his policies more ambitious, detailed and liberal. The tone and manner were as if Edwards' persona had been transformed, or at least as if Edwards listened to different people now. Was that true?

"Yeah," he says. "I listen to me."

A tight clutch of advisers say his 2004 defeats and the years that followed gave Edwards the knowledge and confidence to shed caution in what could be his last run for elective office. "Urgency" is the one-word bumper sticker many of them use to describe Edwards '08. Edwards '04 wanted health care for every child. Now he wants it for every American. Edwards '04 wanted a $6.65 per hour minimum wage. Now he wants $9.50. Then: Double a tax credit for the poor. Now: Triple it. Then: Get the United Nations involved in Iraq. Now: Bring the troops home.

"He left the 2004 campaign thinking that the ideas needed to be more aggressive," said Edwards' wife, Elizabeth, who doubles as his closest adviser. "His experience on the road (between campaigns) just confirmed that for him." Later, she added: "Your first campaign, you really don't know what you're going to do. He's a lot more at ease this time."

Rivals note that Edwards is also a legendary trial lawyer with a focus-group-honed skill for swaying juries. His political evolution coincides with a leftward drift in the Democratic electorate. Some of his top issues this campaign -- including global warming and poverty -- hardly show up in his six-year Senate record. Voters are left to wonder: Is John Edwards finally being himself? Or is he just down to his last closing argument?...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-1204edwardsdec04,1,2710271,full.story

pisses me off. Leave it to the media to screw up what purported to be a decent article.

This hits right where my thinking on John Edwards is.
He's trying to create a persona that Democrats will nominate from one they've once rejected.

It's obvious what he's doing. It's the same as the phonies on the Republican side like Romney are doing. And he's trying to frame at as going from weak to strong, but it's really more of an ideological shift from moderate to liberal

Thanks Mom.

But, people see what they want when they read - and I'm a people too.
Thanks for the link, I recommend all DUers read it.
kick & rec #4
:kick:

without comment. And I generally like all of the candidates, so I probably look for the positive about them all. Thanks again for your response.

He believes that everyone is willing to work for a better world, if someone with the vision can just show us the path.

It's not a bad article. The MSM has damn well tried to paint him as insincere, but it looks like he's done a lot of the right things for the right reasons, and gained a lot from it. Not only financially, but mentally and emotionally.

Deep down he's still the small town kid who worked in the mill. He's learned struggle and sacrifice.

And I do believe it's likely that he was advised to be more cautious last time around. But the time for caution has passed.