John Edwards can buy whatever he wants- He EARNED it

[LibraLiz1973]

How disingenuous would it be for him to live in something smaller just to get elected?
I guess we want someone who is willing to pander to judgmental people who have a "thing" for
square footage?? And if you build a big house, we better NEVER find your ass in a Wendy's! BASTARD!!
John grew up pretty poor. Elizabeth was no silver spoon heiress either.
They have worked hard for their money.
They donate PLENTY of money to charitable causes.

Your problem with where they live is what exactly?


I live in a nice house that I am in the process of renovating.
Perhaps to you the renovations would seem over the top.
But it is what I have worked so hard for- and it doesn't stop me
from giving money to people in need. Truth be told, it probably
paves the way for me to give more- so that I can redress the balance.

Material things do not make a person- personal ACTIONS make a person.
John's actions are consistent with a man who cares about the world.

If you don't care for his politics, fine.
If you don't want to vote for him, great.

But seriously... picking on someone because they worked hard to build their dream home???

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

1. Though I Agree, I'd Have To Say That He Can Buy Whatever He Wants, Even If He Didn't Earn It.

Either way, it's none of our damn business. :)

[YellingTuna]

15. I have to agree

[depakid]

28. If you're running for president and expect to win then you'd better

exercise good judgment. Hard to believe that with his two America's message- he wouldn't have seen this coming.

If his actions here smack of arrogance and hypocrisy.

If he didn't, you have to wonder why....

[AspenRose]

2. Right on.

It's bad enough rich conservatives pile on rich liberals without us doing it to our own.

It's sad to assume only poor and middle class people are the only ones who can fight for the poor and middle class. JFK and FDR, and heck, John Kerry, blew that assumption out of the water.

[mondo joe]

3. Some people have to learn to extend the same respect they have for what a woman does

with her uterus to what people do with the rest of themselves.

Y'know, we've had posts about how people who stand in line for game consoles deserve to die, so it's hsardly shocking to see the nasty reaction to Edwards' house.

[LibraLiz1973]

4. Eeek. Standing in line for a game console shouldn't equal a death sentence

The world is such an angry place

[july302001]

18. Game consoles are small potatoes

I remember the game console threads. Who cares if someone buys a $500 game console? A lower middle-class income can theoretically buy one. I don't care about expenditures on that level.

I don't happen to play games, so I don't buy the things, but I spent almost that amount on a digicam a couple of years ago.

There's an enormous difference between buying a $500 console and putting up a $6 million in-your-face mansion. It's all a matter of degree and "public image."

Image is everything in a campaign - it's win-or-lose.

I want a Dem in the White House this time, after so many fricking years. For that to happen, our candidate has to walk the walk. I'm tired of *Residents that are so filthy rich they don't know what a grocery scanner is.

Like I said in the other thread, a nice 3,500-5,000 sf home would be fine with me. I don't expect people to live like Mother Teresa.

[tuvor]

5. People with money are bad.

Every last one of them.

[LibraLiz1973]

6. No sarcasm smiley??

nt

[tuvor]

22. Was it necessary?

Okay, then. :sarcasm:

[Lurking Dem]

19. And judgemental people are... what?

[tuvor]

23. I guess I should have used the sarcasm smiley for your benefit, too.

Sorry.

[teryang]

7. I own this property, so i can leave junk cars and old tires out front

There is a flaw in that logic as well.

[LibraLiz1973]

8. ???

[sandnsea]

9. Neither one of them grew up poor

There are only two things that bother me about their house. One is the number of trees they mowed down to build it and the other is the amount of resources it took to build it and operate it.

However, it is completely bullshit that either one of them grew up poor. Elizabeth's father was a navy officer and John's father was a foreman. NOT POOR.

Everybody works hard and everybody deserves to have a decent home to live in. John Edwards doesn't deserve it any more than anybody else does.

Let's get some damned perspective all the way around.

[LibraLiz1973]

11. You might want to read up on Edwards

They most certainly were NOT rich- lower middle class MAYBE

[sandnsea]

16. lower middle class is NOT poor

And a foreman is not lower middle class, generally solidly middle class - at least in the average income of America sense.

[ms liberty]

20. You really don't need to worry about the trees they cut down...

for one thing, from the pic I saw, the area cleared was in the middle of a stand of primarily very mature pines, with a much smaller amount of mature hardwoods mixed in. But mainly you don't need to worry about the trees because they won't be missed. Seriously. You have to be totally unfamiliar with NC, or you'd know that we've got more trees than Gawd in this state, all over this state. We have NO shortage of trees. We probably had three or four times that many trees fall last year in this state for natural reasons than they felled to clear that piece of land.

And John Edwards' family was poor. The fact that he made foreman at a textile mill doesn't mean he was making a lot of money.

[sandnsea]

21. Because they're mature trees???

Oh good lord. Old Growth. You've only got about 40,000 acres left, and that's more than any other state in the southeast. You don't want to be cutting down mature trees.

http://www.primalnature.org/northcarolina/enc.html

Foreman of a textile mill IS NOT poor. His mother worked too. Eating food your grandmother scraped off people's plates from her waitressing job, because your mother has a work injury and your father is gone, that's poor.

[ms liberty]

24. You're making the mistaken assumption that I said "old growth"...

NO, that is not what I said. And if you would check the site you linked to, you would find that NONE of the old growth they speak of is in Orange county, which is where John Edwards' new house is lcoated. All of the old growth they reference is near the coast. Look at the pictures of the Edwards' house, and then look at the pictures of the old growth in the link. Note the number of trees on the Edwards' land, see how tightly packed they are? That is not old growth forest.

I never said he grew up destitute - I said poor, as in lower middle class. Foreman IN a textile mill, not OF, foreman is not plant manager - and do you really think he started as foreman? I doubt he made a great living, but yea they got by...You really think John Edwards' mother worked because she wanted to?

Apparently he'd have to have grown up homelss to qualify for you. And by your measurement, I didn't grow up poor either, since my mother managed on minimum wage to raise me and my sister without having to root through dumpsters for food, and kept a roof over our head.

John Edwards is not my choice for our nominee, but this recent attitude on DU that he's sooo terrible because he built his dream house, cut down some pines, and describes his upbringing as poor when he wasn't raised in a cardboard box on dumpster leavings is just a bit annoying.

[sandnsea]

25. One thing's for sure

The recovery of that land has been set back several more hundred years. The recovery of forested land to its original state in the southeast is set back every time someone so flippantly mows it down. I don't think people in the east really understand the western environmental movement because the easterners don't fully realize what they've lost. The Edwards sure didn't help change that impression.

John Edwards didn't grow up with a single mom on minimum wage. That's my point. I'm glad that he's speaking on poverty, I'm glad when anybody speaks on poverty. But he doesn't relate to it personally because he's never been there. To equate a middle class family as poor just feeds into the misconceptions this country had about family finances. MOST families live the way John Edwards did, more live on less than he did. That's what America's families really consist of, truly poor and just getting by. Those in the upper 15% tend to think everybody is living like they are and it's not true. Calling the real middle class poor only cements that thinking for the upper 15%. It's a mistake to do it. Edwards was regular middle working class, not poor.

[AnotherMother4Peace]

10. He & his dear wife have worked very hard & overcome obstacles

as poverty and cancer. They deserve a fine house. They earned it. They are true role models in my book. I don't begrudge them a comfortable life at all.

There was a time when I was going to college, working, and raising babies - and ya know what? My house is now paid for, & my kids are in college. I'm not ashamed. I worked hard.

[motocicleta]

12. Did he really build a 30,000 sq ft house?

I've lived in a 4500 sq ft house, a 1700 sq ft house, a trailer attached to a shack, a 500 sq ft apartment, and currently reside in an 1800 sq ft condo.

If dude doesn't have about 50 people living there, 30,000 sq ft is grotesque. I don't care what your views on personal freedom are, in 2007 that kind of energy inefficiency is simply wrong.

Of course, dude ain't gettin' my vote anyway, 'cause dude voted for IWR. I'm not voting for any idiot who thought that was a good idea unless their opponent has an 'R' next to their name.

[LibraLiz1973]

13. I agree it's excessive but it wont affect my vote one way or the other

If he starts running a brothel out of the house THEN I'll care about it

[motocicleta]

14. agreed. n/t

[nuxvomica]

17. I don't care that he has a big house and lots of money

I just care that he pay a lot more in taxes than I do. And Edwards would probably agree with me. I don't mind the rich and their excesses as long as they pay their fair share -- which they don't currently -- and don't whine about it.

[Az]

26. Its not whether he can, its whether he should

Its sad but the truth is that running for the office of president is primarily about image. And it is difficult to maintain an image of a person standing up for the common man when you are building a mansion on a vast lay of land. It just smacks peoples sensibilities and puts them off about the candidate.

Now you can fuss and fret about how he is free to do what he wants and you would be absolutely right. But doing what you want does not get you elected president.

[Quixote1818]

27. I agree for the most part but his "Two America's" theme seems to

smell of a little bit of hypocrisy with the huge house. He should probably practice what he preaches and live in a modest house. It's not something I am too concerned with though but I can see commercials in a general election turning this into an issue only because he claims their shouldn't be two Americas yet his lifestyle is the perfect example of the "America" he is criticizing.