is he the "new south" candidate?
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Edwards seeks to make 2nd time a charm By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 59 minutes ago
Two years older and he says wiser, too, John Edwards announced a repeat presidential campaign Thursday with new ideas that make him a very different candidate the second time around.
In 2004, Edwards was the moderate southern senator who promoted middle class tax cuts and tried to position himself as the best general election alternative to President Bush.
This time the 53-year-old faces a tougher fight for the Democratic nomination and has a more progressive campaign of eliminating poverty, reducing global warming and providing universal health care for all Americans.
He's apologizing for his vote to send troops to Iraq — which he stood by steadfastly in the 2004 campaign — and is calling for 40,000-50,000 troops to come home immediately.
And those middle class tax cuts he campaigned on in 2004? "At this point, it's hard to see how to do that," Edwards said in an interview after his campaign kickoff in New Orleans.
The unorthodox campaign launch site — the middle of a neighborhood still devastated more than a year after Hurricane Katrina — itself demonstrated how Edwards campaign has changed. In 2004, he had an official kickoff in his hometown of Robbins, N.C. for a campaign that stressed his up-from-the-bootstraps biography that turned the son of a mill worker into a successful trial attorney and then senator.
This time around, Edwards didn't mention one word about his personal story. He talked less about what he wanted to do as president and more about how everyone can change the country.
"That's why I'm in New Orleans," said Edwards, standing before student volunteers working to rebuild a home, "is to show what's possible when we as Americans, instead of staying home and complaining about somebody else not doing what they're supposed to, we actually take responsibility and we take action."
Edwards wore blue jeans and an open-necked shirt and stood casually before a line of television cameras and reporters to make his announcement. There was no TelePrompTer, no American flag backdrop and no cheering crowd that is typical of a presidential kickoff.
Edwards' advisers scheduled a six-state announcement tour between Christmas and New Year's Day with the hopes that news would be slow and he could dominate media coverage. Over three days, Edwards also planned to travel to Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina and his home state of North Carolina.
Edwards was trying to make a unique entrance into what is bound to be a competitive race for president. Only two others have officially announced their candidacies — Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack and Rep. Dennis Kucinich — but several others are expected to join the race in the new year.
The most dominant figures are Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and Edwards' first question from the gathered reporters was about how he intends to compete with them. "I want the best human beings possible to run for president of the United States," Edwards said.
The race also might include Edwards' former partner on the Democratic ticket — 2004 presidential nominee John Kerry.
In an interview later in a nearby home that is almost completely rebuilt, Edwards brushed aside any suggestion that it might be awkward to take on the man who chose him for the national ticket last time around.
Edwards said the biggest responsibility of the next president will be to restore America's moral leadership in the world. He said the Bush administration's leadership in Iraq has been a disaster and that it would be a mistake to send in more troops, which Bush is considering in the new year.
Edwards said it's a "fair question" to ask about his lack of foreign policy experience after just one term in the Senate. But he said he's spend the last two years since he left office traveling the world. "It's given me some depth and understanding that didn't exist before that time," he said.
And he noted that the Bush administration has included such experienced foreign policy hands as Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and "they've been an absolute disaster by any measure."
Edwards said it's not just Iraq that it is chaos and in need of moral leadership from the United States. He said the United States should be leading an end to genocide in Sudan and to atrocities in northern Uganda. He also said the United States should be part of the International Criminal Court, something that Bush has fought against to keep Americans from facing politically motivated prosecutions.
He also said the country should end its dependence on foreign oil. He said he would tax oil company profits and eliminate Bush's tax cuts to pay for his priorities.
In the interview later, Edwards said he will have a health care plan that will provide coverage for every American, something that few presidential candidates have considered a winning issue because of the high cost.
"I didn't have a universal health care plan (last time). Nobody did," Edwards said. "I shouldn't say nobody. I think Dennis Kucinich may have."
Kucinich, the most liberal presidential candidate in 2004 and 2008, wants national health insurance providing single-payer universal health care. He also wants to replace the Department of Defense with a Department of Peace and is a long-shot candidate for president.
Edwards said he's still working out the details of his health care plan and doesn't yet have a cost estimate.
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