I have a bunch of photos up on my flickr account, including the bigger version of this one:
Let's see. He arrived on this bright and sunny day in the big field. He gave a speech for 15-20 minutes and then answered questions for at least another 30 minutes. Then he shook hands and kissed babies (well, I didn't see that part, but it could have happened).
Once again I met a bunch of people (and saw several I had seen at the Richardson event). Nobody was decided, not everybody was even a democrat. NH is really fun for this stuff.
I sat about 10 feet from Edwards while he spoke and took furious notes. Let's see if I can summarize them before I pass out from being so tired.
The speech:
He started by saying Elizabeth was doing well (and their 30th anniversary is tomorrow!). He talked about his cycling with Lance Armstrong and Elizabeth ratting him out to their son about the fact that Lance slowed down to let daddy keep up with him.
He launched into his standard dialog: Washington is broken. The system is rigged and it's rigged against you. It's rigged by the Insurance companies, the drug companies, the oil companies... We need a Big Change.
He jumped over to say how democratic candidates should not be going after each other, they should be going after what's wrong with the government (reference to bickering between Obama and Clinton). Then he said what he doesn't want to see is one set of insiders take the place of another set of insiders after this election. [sorry to insert my cynicism but like he's not an insider?]
So his issues
- Healthcare system. He wants universal coverage, mandate subsidies for premiums, no pre-existing condition clauses, take it with you if your laid off. Paid for by taking back the Bush tax cuts for the rich. Then he told a personal story of a 50 year old man in Appalacia who had a cleft palette and couldn't speak his whole life until last year because he didn't have good health care. In the US. Edwards was outraged by this. He said the people need to rail against this and stand up to lobbyists.
- Global warming. Companies don't want change... they're doing well, they don't want to shake things up. We need to make laws to do it, cap carbon emissions 80% less by 2050, auction the rights to produce carbon and use that money to invest in renewable energy. No nuclear pants. Ask for patriotism and sacrifice of the american people in not being dependent on oil. And also, we have to lead. We need to be able to ask China and others to treat the environment right, but not until we're doing it.
- Economic inequality. The 2 americas is not rich and poor. It's the multinational corporations and those wealthy folks, and everybody else. He wants to speak for the Americans who can't feed and clothe their children. Need a higher minimum wage and one that is indexed to go up automatically.
- College for everyone. Everyone should be able to go to college. If you graduate high school and want to go, work 10hr/wk your first year and get college paid for [maybe I missed something about how this is supposed to work]. He's done it in a low income section of NC and says it's working well.
- Tax system. Make it fair for everyone. Go after Romney and Guliani (who he says are like "Bush on steroids" [I'm not sure what that means]).
- Take care of what has been the destruction of American leadership in the world. Stop the war in Iraq. Close Guantanamo. No torture. No illegal spying on citizens. No secret Prisons. Then he stopped to say, "Why do I even have to say this? What kind of shape is our country in if these things have to be spoken out loud in comparison to the existing policy?" It was a good moment.
- Do the world good. Stop Darfur. Help world provide clean water and sanitation. Educate the children of the world.
Then he said, "I cannot change all problems by myself. I'd like to make that promise, but I can't because a single person, even in the Oval Office can't do it. But you all are the movement. The Civil Rights movement started with individual people standing up for what they wanted and that's what we need now."
And then we got to questions:
- Campaign finance? A: The only way to do it is to publicly finance campaigns. These things should not be money-raising events.
- Subsidizing health care premiums (something about single payer versus something...)? A: Cap the overhead for premium-based ones and then offer government-sponsored that is single-payer.
- Foreign policy and China (the big bad is not our friend)? A: They're full of messes with human rights and environment and such. They support Sudan against Darfur region, lots of bad stuff. Need to put pressure on them to do right and work with them.
- Iraq war and vet care? A: Start taking people out ASAP and finish over a year or so. Get Sunni and Shia together to negotiate. Work with surrounding countries since they want stability. Have rapid deployment teams in Kuwait and the gulf, and put more in Afghanistan. This is where it got interesting. He said we need to be prepared for a civil war on the light end. And then he said we also need to be prepared for the worse, which nobody is talking about: Genocide. Sunni may try to wipe out the Shia. In that case it becomes int'l effort for human rights. On vets, he goes on about taking care of them as individuals and good funding and such.
- College loans out the wazoo? A: Skip the middle man, make them government based so there's not extra costs.
- Art teacher asks about No Child Left Behind? A: It's a mess. Lots of good description of why it's a mess. But he doesn't say he's getting rid of it. Just that each child needs to be assessed at the beginning and end of the year and assessed in ways that are meaningful for them (where they may be good at math or art or other stuff and that's how to lead them and assess them). And punishing the "failing" schools is the stupidest thing ever.
- Immigration and war on terror? A: No big fence, though a fence in certain places could be an option. Crack down on employers hiring illegals. No kicking people out or amnesty, but a path to citizenship. A smallish fine that could actually be paid. Must speak english.
- Population growth and economic dependence on Military Industrial Complex? A: Get rid of nuclear weapons and yes shifting to a peace-based economy would require adjustments in education and what we do with money and time.
- Global warming? A: Americans need to demand action. Politicians will follow.
Then he offered to answer all of our questions personally if we email them to him because he couldn't take all the questions. He talked about how great NH is for the ability to ask hard questions of candidates and any candidate not willing to stand and answer shouldn't be president.
General impressions:
The man is a good motivational speaker. I kind of rolled my eyes at his mentions of being not an insider, and some of the other rhetoric that sounds great but is lacking evidence of being doable. At the same time, he is very nice to listen to and absolutely seems earnest and honest. He may have the overshininess of a politician, but in no way do I get the impression that he doesn't care about the things he talks about. Still, it's a show me the money situation for me. I haven't seen any evidence that he has done the types of things he'll need to do as president. Maybe he has, but he didn't help promote that information in his speechifying. I got to shake his hand afterwards and he's got a firm handshake. He also seems skinnier in person than on tv. Or maybe that was the jeans versus a suit... :)
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