Former Sen. John Edwards has raised $21.9 million by making poverty the focus of his Democratic presidential campaign. Mr. Edwards this week concluded his "poverty tour":
The former senator from North Carolina began his journey Monday to retrace the campaign trail of another Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, whose 1968 bid was defined by a "poverty tour" through the South.In her Thursday column, Suzanne Fields suggests some reading for Mr. Edwards:Mr. Edwards will end his own "poverty tour" at the same spot as Mr. Kennedy today, with a speech at the old courthouse in Prestonsburg, Ky.
John Edwards has finished his celebrated poverty tour, making obligatory stops in hurricane-ravaged neighborhoods in New Orleans, decrepit Delta towns in Mississippi and Arkansas, up through Appalachian backwaters to Cleveland and finally home to Washington. Now he ought to sit down for a good read with "The Forgotten Man," a new book by the economist Amity Shlaes. She shows how he's looking through the wrong end of his binoculars, emphasizing poverty and not the prosperity expanding the economy that lifts the poor. The public seems to understand what he doesn't. He has to bring up his poverty program because no one else will.Ah, but someone has it brought it up, in video parody form on YouTube:
The question is whether this video will do for Mr. Edwards' presidential bid what the "macaca" video did to Sen. George Allen's Senate re-election campaign.
-- Robert Stacy McCain, assistant national editor, The Washington Times
Comments (3)
If the politicians continue to revise the definition of poverty up, like revising the definition of rich down, eventually the two will meet in the middle. Then they will be taxing everyone to pay for everyone. I think its called socialism.
Posted by Larry Stone | July 20, 2007 2:08 AM
It's interesting that Edwards should start the tour in a state that's been liberal Democratically dominated for years. It shows what long exposure to liberalism will produce....POVERTY. Washington DC under Marion Barry, another liberal Democrat, was a microcosm of liberalism and the government had to seize control of it to save it from bankruptcy.
Liberalism is a parasite and will die by itself........let it.
Posted by Mike | July 20, 2007 3:08 PM
What does someone who lives in a 20,000 square foot house know about poverty?
Posted by tarzan | July 22, 2007 8:23 AM