This vlog contains much of the Q & A for two events that I attended in October of 2007 in NH: Dover and Exeter. At the Dover Town Hall Edwards received the Friends of the Earth endorsement. Exeter was old school retail politics at its best and had a very warm vibe because I taped it the day after the Red Sox won the World Series for the second time in four years.
Why is there an extraordinary disconnect between the strength and goodness of the American people and the government?
Part of it is incompetence: there's no question about that. But I believe it's not just incompetence, I think it's also ... the creeping effect of corruption.
It did not start with George Bush ... I think it has been building up for twenty years. And what are the examples of it? They go on forever ...
These things are not an accident. They are the direct result of the poison fruit of corruption.
Q&A videos from both Dover and Exeter:
Video: Dover Q&A: Health Care (7:04)
What about the uninsured, the working poor and is your plan single payer?
What about the plans with high deductibles?
I came out with the first universal health care proposal which I am proud to have done a few months ago. applause And I think that it is core to strengthening the middle-class and lifting people out of poverty.
Half the people in America that go into bankruptcy and by the way you're more likely to go into bankruptcy in America today ... than to get a divorce which is an amazing statistic. Half of those bankruptcies are because of health care costs.
It's not single-payer, I'll tell you exactly what it is. It's a hybrid. You will be able to choose between a private plan and a government plan. The government plan is Medicare Plus. If over time people choose the government plan then it becomes single-payer. Which is fine with me, but I want Americans to be able to choose.
Video: Dover Q&A: Education (5:26)
What do you see as the benefits and drawbacks of NCLB, do you think it should be re-authorized?
It needs to be dramatically changed for a variety of reasons. Number one, is it hasn't been funded. Number two, it is unbelievably disrespectful to the teaching profession.
We just lived through this with my nine year-old who just finished third grade in public school in North Carolina ... They spent half the year getting ready for the end of grade test, and she had a good teacher, but it interfered enormously with the teaching process.
No child ever learned anything from filling out a bubble on a cheap standardized multiple-choice test.
This clip also gives a good assessment of the problems and solutions regarding the recruiting, training and mentoring of superior teachers, the most essential ingredient to a good school.
Video: Exeter Q&A: The Military (5:19)
A question from a man whose son volunteered for the Marines on September 11, 2007 and will soon be graduating from Paris Island.
He asks: what are your plans for the military and Pentagon budget?
It's a complicated answer.
More Questions:
Video: Exeter Q&A: Just 6 (1:15)
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From the Stump:
Video: Exeter: Health Care (3:11)
What man and what woman are not worthy of health care in America?
Let's talk about health care for a minute because no one can seriously think that our health care system, works. I mean really, you've 47 million people who don't have any coverage. 2 million more than we had just a year ago.
Health insurance premiums are up over 100% [since 2001]. There is only one answer, and that answer is universal health care mandated for every man, woman and child in this country.
Video: Exeter: Voter Challenge (2:13)
Do not vote for a candidate that takes money from DC lobbyists.
If NH primary voters said starting tomorrow: we will not vote for a candidate for president that continues to raise millions of dollars from Washington lobbyists then it would change overnight.
Really though, if you look at the amount of money that is being raised in this campaign, it is obscene ... How much money do people need to run a presidential campaign, I mean really. I hope we're going to have an election not an auction here in NH.
Video: Dover: Energy (6:10)
Edwards receives endorsement from Friends of the Earth Action. Presented by Brent Blackwelder, president.
We believe that John Edwards is the candidate that is most committed and the best prepared to deal with the critical issue of global warming and to promote a healthy and livable planet for our families and our future ...
In particular, on the pre-eminent issue of our time John Edwards has been out in front on the global warming crisis with the most comprehensive and best plan to deal with this critical issue.
Let me just close with a quote from the campaign: "Our generation must be the one that says we must halt global warming. It won't be easy but it is time to ask the American people to be patriotic about something other than war." Friends of the Earth Action believes this is the right message. It won't be easy, but John Edwards is the patriot to lead us in meeting this huge challenge. So we give you our endorsement, sir.
The Exeter stump speech:
Elizabeth in Brentwood:
If this looks like fun and you don't mind phone banking or canvassing all day in an early state then think about signing up for an Edwards Campaign Road Trip today. The campaign needs you now and every day as we enter the home stretch; these primaries are going to be over before we know it and consequently now is the time to plan your trips to an early state.
The campaign kids that I work with literally spend 100 hours working some weeks. Canvassing, phone banking, events and everything else. They need volunteers to start showing up in droves and driving the Edwards ground game in the established well researched strongholds all over the state. Pictured here is James Brandt Pollack holding the mic. He worked at least that much in the week before this event in Dover sick as a dog. The whole office was sick, but still they put the hours in. Mike Alfoni, the head of the Dover office, has a picture of Hillary hanging over his desk. I asked him why he put it up in a place of such prominence and he replied, "so I won't have to work for her next year and see Giuliani president for eight long ones."
They need you. So consider a couple of weekend excursions between now and the holidays. Try to sign-up for the last two weeks for a road trip. Do it, we need you now. It's all happening out there now.
Edwards hangs his hopes on volunteers
His foes have more money, but Edwards says he's got more feet on the ground
ROCK RAPIDS, IOWA - Barb Jones is a foot soldier in John Edwards' Iowa political army -- one of the people Edwards is counting on to keep his White House bid alive ... Edwards is counting on a broad network of Iowa volunteers such as Jones, carefully built over two presidential campaigns and dozens of visits, to sustain him against his better-financed Democratic opponents, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.
Clinton and Obama are dominating the Iowa television airwaves. But come the night of the Jan. 3 caucuses, Edwards hopes his organization will muster a majority at the schools, churches and libraries where Iowans will gather to cast the first ballots of the 2008 presidential campaign ...
Since late June, Obama has spent $3.5 million on TV in Iowa, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has spent $1.8 million and Clinton has spent $1.6 million. Edwards has spent nothing. Edwards, who has a far smaller war chest than Clinton and Obama, has been holding back on his TV campaign until closer to the caucuses.
And as Gov. Mike Dukakis recently said of the Democrats and Republicans: well, we can't really outspend them. But we can certainly outwork them.
See you out there ...
This diary is another in the continuing guerrilla vlogger series. I'm not associated with the campaign in any way although I do volunteer, but I speak only for myself when blogging. I support Edwards for the nomination and I do all these vlogs as a citizen journalist, as in I'm not paid. I do everything with an ordinary mini-DV, a PC, Movie Maker and free tools available on the web.