Edwards gets pledge from Clinton, Obama to make poverty a top issue in campaign, administration

CNN: Edwards quitting presidential race

.....Edwards has told top advisers about his decision. It is expected he will announce it in a speech at 1 p.m. ET Wednesday in New Orleans, Louisiana....New Orleans is the same city in which Edwards declared his run to be the 2008 Democratic presidential nominee. Edwards' campaign Web site said he was to deliver an address on poverty and work on a Habitat for Humanity project Wednesday in New Orleans....

An aide said Edwards does not plan to endorse either Clinton or Obama at this time but he may do so in the future.

A top Edwards aide said the former senator contacted Obama and Clinton on Tuesday, telling them he was considering dropping out of the race and asking them to make poverty a top issue of their campaigns and -- if either reaches the White House -- a central part of their administration. Both candidates agreed, the aide said.

Reacting to the expected announcement, Obama praised Edwards. "At a time when our politics is too focused on who's up and who's down, he made a nation focus again on who matters -- the New Orleans child without a home, the West Virginia miner without a job, the families who live in that other America that is not seen or heard or talked about by our leaders in Washington," Obama said Wednesday....

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Edwards had campaigned on the message that he was standing up for the little guy, the people who are not traditionally given a voice in Washington, and that he would do more to fight special interests. Commenting on his New Orleans trip, Edwards said Tuesday the city symbolized why he chose to run for president. "It's a living, breathing example of the heart of my message, what I'm talking about," Edwards said. "I mean it's the failure of government to be there when people need it. It's a perfect indication of the conditions of poverty that exist in America."...

***

Before entering politics, winning a Senate seat from North Carolina in 1998, Edwards was a lawyer representing families "being victimized by powerful interests" and gaining "a national reputation as a forceful and tireless champion for regular, hard-working people," according to his campaign Web site.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/30/edwards/index.html

could make a cause of holding them to their pledge, of pressuring them right and left not to forget the forgotten.

We will have to decide who comes closest.

SO much that they are using it to try to butter him up for an endorsement? But I was told he was a phony for a year! :eyes:

not volunteering out of the blue to take up his cause. I hope they do devote some attention to the poor among us.

So he wasn't a phony all along? The same folks who said he was a phony are the same ones who said Gore was eight years ago...

...in a thread I posted.

Edwards may no longer be a candidate but he has ALL OF THE POWER right now.

He can dictate that his message and his ideas about poverty and the middle
class--be implemented into the campaigns and possible administrations of
Clinton and Obama.

I imagine that if a deal has not all ready been brokered---that the candidate
who best ensures Edwards that his plans will be realized (through a vp slot
or cabinet position) will win Edwards' endorsement.

Edwards has power and he will make sure that he can continue the fight.

You can be sure that Edwards will ask for more than a wink and a nod--and you can also be
sure that he'll sign on with the candidate that he feels can be
most trusted with helping Edwards leverage his dreams about lifting
people out of poverty and restoring the middle class.

This is going to get really, really emotional.