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John Edwards spoke at a dinner tonight as part of a symposium called Transforming American Healthcare Over the Next Decade. It was presented by the WP Carey Business School, the School of Health Management and Policy. Sen. Edwards remarks were entitled "Government AS A Pathway To Change".
It was very odd to see him NOT surrounded by Secret Service and screaming fans.
This was held at the Biltmore Resort in Phoenix and the weather was just lovely. We started with a hosted bar on a beautiful terrace. I was told that the Sen. was not going to be giving interviews due to a tight schedule. I didn't really mind as all I needed to do was catch his speech on camera.That left me free to mingle and drink Chardonnay! I was somewhat shocked when he walked out on the terrace with very little fanfare. No one even seemed to notice! (Except for me and a friend of course!)
Now , I must explain, most of these people were Republican, so their reactions were a little different than ours would be. I was talking to a Doctor, who said he would like to talk to Edwards about malpractice insurance, but he didn't think he would talk to him.He said it a bit snippy, so I offered to introduce him to Edwards, and that is just what I did! The Senator seemed to remember me, and I promised not to interview him ,but asked him to talk to the Doc, which he did. The Doc was flabbergasted that he addressed the issue, and thought the Doc made some good points.We may have made a convert!
Later on I had my picture taken again and I asked about Elizabeth. He said she has had eight chemos and they are hoping things turn out well. There was a lot of sadness in his eyes and he seemed not as confident as he previously has been about this issue. I told him how nice Elizabeth had been to me and wished her well. I hugged him.
He looks gorgeous and smells absolutely wonderful! We ,then went in and had a superb dinner in the beautiful "Gold Room".
His speech was a real barnstormer. He stuck to his populist theme and called for a reorganization of the HealthCare system. He called for an end to misleading drug ads and a real Patient's Bill of Rights. He asked that lawyers be held responsible for cases that lack merit. He said that the "structural problems caused by lack of Health Care are ignored at our peril," which was a quote from Dick Armey. The Senator pushed a version Of Kerry's plan for kids and said we must start there.
Edwards said it was "WRONG" to expect the private sector to solve this problem and America had a "moral obligation to provide heath care". He said this lack hurts both our economy and our national character.Edwards also said that this problem effects how the rest of the world views us, and it wasn't good.
When he was speaking you could hear a pin drop. There was no reaction to a few blatantly partisan remarks, but he was warmly applauded at the finish. There was a Q and A following and he really got down on Bush. He was asked why weren't these problems addressed. He said it was because the President was "divorced from reality". He hit at the President and this administration several more times as having the wrong priorities, and actually said we wouldn't have been in this situation had the election been different. He said, "I tried".There was applause from the few obvious Democrats! He then left the podium and stayed and chatted a bit. I went to say goodbye, and handed him my card.What a lovely man. My friend and I both agreed he made us proud to be Democrats. He stood up to that room full of Republicans and didn't back down an inch, or try to water any of his positions down. He certainly wasn't Repuke Lite and I think they respected him for it!
BTW, I got into a cute conversation with some Republican women on the "hotness" of Edwards. They went running out to judge for themselves and came back faint! They admitted that Cheney could never have a baby tee that said "Cheney is hot" like Edwards had. One snickered that the only thing you could put on a Cheney shirt would be "Cheney is dead!" There was an obvious Republican guy that got all PO'ed at the conversation, and I said Edwards "hotness" was a nonpartisan issue, and surely, even he could see that Edwards was hotter than Cheney! He refused to acknowledge that fact! But anyway, I had fun, and that's all folks!
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