July 22, 2006
July 02, 2006
Former VP candidate Edwards ranking Number One Choice for President
PORTLAND - Former vice presidential candidate John Edwards, who is mulling over a run for the presidency in 2008, called for withdrawal from Iraq within the next 18 months, and for the U.S. government to launch another war - on poverty - in a speech Friday at the National Organization of Black Elected Legislative Women's conference.
Edwards, a former Democratic senator from North Carolina who currently directs a poverty research center at the University of North Carolina, couldn't resist a few partisan jabs at the current administration, calling the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina ''a failure of presidential leadership.''
His comments drew applause from the largely Democratic conference attendees, who cheered Edwards' calls for a rise in the minimum wage, expansion of earned income tax credits and expanded regulations for the check-cashing industry.
Edwards also said it should be easier for workers to join unions.
''If Republicans or Democrats can join a political party by signing their name to a card, any worker should be able to do the same thing with a union,'' said Edwards, who was on the 2004 ticket with Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry.
In a recent poll of Iowa Democrats, Edwards ranked at the top of a list of potential presidential candidates, outpacing New York Sen. Hillary Clinton. Iowa is host to the nation's first political caucus, and often plays a key role in determining the nominees for the major political parties.
Edwards' speech offered a preview of some of the talking points Democrats will use on the campaign trail this fall: He called for universal health care coverage and for development of wind and solar energy sources, and he said he regretted his vote authorizing the president to declare war in Iraq.
In response to questions from reporters after his speech, Edwards said he considered Oregon a progressive state, but said he still considered it contested. Edwards and Kerry won Oregon in 2004 with 51 percent of the vote to President Bush's 47 percent.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press

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