Edwards campaign e-mail: 'George Bush doesn't care about poor people'

[draft_mario_cuomo]

Edwards and Trippi are exactly right.

Edwards e-mail: 'George Bush doesn't care about poor people'

==The subject line of a fundraising e-mail just sent out by the presidential campaign of Democrat John Edwards appears designed to get attention:==

==It's a take-off, of course, on the remark made by rapper Kanye West during a 2005 celebrity telethon for Hurricane Katrina victims when he said "George Bush doesn't care about black people." West's statement drew considerable criticism.

The e-mail, from Edwards adviser Joe Trippi, adds that:

John Edwards is launching the Road to One America Tour next week to shine a light on the 37 million Americans who live in poverty. If we don't stand up for them, who will? George Bush and his corporate buddies won't. The lobbyists in Washington won't. And since the media can't stop talking about Paris Hilton, you can bet they won't help shine a light on it.==

[MethuenProgressive]

1. When Edwards was in the Senate, what did he do about poverty?

Anyone here know?

edit: Changed "he" into "Edwards"

[JANdad]

2. Exactly

What could he have done about poverty in a GOP controled senate?

[MethuenProgressive]

4. He did nothing? No votes, no bills, no speeches? Nothing at all?

Funny how he discovered poverty as an issue so late in his political life.

[saltpoint]

3. Bravo for John Edwards. That is a question that needs to be asked

and then answered by the Republican Party.

To boil it down to hard specifics, many folks along the Gulf Coast and in New Orleans proper might want to know why a U.S. president abandoned them to a killer storm.

A follow-up question might have to do with whether those abandoned were wealthy -- they were not -- or white -- a majority were not. George W. Bush is both wealthy and white. I believe these are questions a political candidate should ask. I don't believe George W. Bush can answer them. I believe he'd duck like the coward he is if he were confronted by his spectacular failure during the Katrina abandonment.

I think the question is as essential to American politics as it is legitimate in a camaign. It is crucial to any dialogue we have on U.S. domestic policy. John Kennedy's words ring through here very loudly and very clearly:

“If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.”

--John F. Kennedy, Inaugural, 1961


...and would add as well Bill Moyers' observation:

"America is a broken promise, and we are called to do what we can to fix it - to get America back on the track. St. Augustine shows us how: 'One loving soul sets another on fire.' But to move beyond sentimentality, what begins in love must lead on to justice. We are called to the fight of our lives."

--Bill Moyers, Aug 2004

The Edwards campaign taps into this vein in American political history and insists that it hold primacy before we can once again reclaim our position as a moral example in the world.

I applaud this effort in any form, and John Edwards' form is fiercely determined, and historically sound. His target is worthy and his aim is true.

[slampoet]

5. The Bush family hasn't cared about the poor.....ever.

I bet you can go back 10 generations and still not find anyone who worked with the poor.