Edwards Evening News RoundUp: Middle Class Rising

The Edwards campaign is picking up steam, and a lot of people are noticing, even some of the Media.  That Poll yesterday showing Edwards in the Lead in Iowa at 30%, certainly helped to get people talking. The Chris Matthews Interview with Edwards in New Hampshire was certainly a breath of fresh air too.  

The race just got VERY interesting …

First off those surprising Poll Numbers:

MSNBC FirstRead – Tuesday, Dec 18, 2007

by Domenico Montanaro

In an InsiderAdvantage poll in Iowa,
Edwards leads among (977) likely voters
30-26-24 over Clinton and Obama.

Edwards is also the clear second choice winner,
42-29-28 over Clinton and Obama.

This is the first poll to show Edwards
solely in the lead in Iowa since July.

Among highly likely caucus goers
(of which there are 633), though,
the three are deadlocked:
Obama 27, Edwards 26, Clinton 24.

Edwards again wins second choice,
42-31-27 over Clinton and Obama.

The poll was conducted Dec. 16-17 and
has a margin of error of 3%
for the likely voters section and
4% for the highly likely voters section.

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/12/18/524511.aspx
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And remember 2nd Place choices are very important in Iowa ….

The race just got VERY interesting … some of the other campaigns seem a bit nervous. They must have seen this interview too:

John Edwards on Hardball: 12-18-07

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsQpE6f2rPA
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Feel that momentum shifting!

I think that maybe the Clinton camp, may have been watching Hardball too? Something certainly motivated them to go on that Helicopter-jump tour of rural Iowa, in spite of that Des Moines Register endorsement.

washingtonpost.com – The Trail

Clinton Advisers Point to Edwards Threat

By Anne E. Kornblut

INDEPENDENCE, Iowa — Clinton advisers have been pushing the notion that former senator John Edwards poses a growing threat in the Iowa caucuses, suggesting their internal data show something of a mini-surge for the North Carolinian. Obama advisers have countered that it makes for a convenient storyline — and is evidence the Clinton campaign is threatened by a two-way race with Sen. Barack Obama.

Today, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton took Edwards on over his signature issue, indicating she may view the Edwards improvements as quite real. “People talk about poverty in this campaign,” Clinton said during a crowded event here. “Well, we lifted more people out of poverty during the 1990s than at any time in our history.”

Clinton went on to dismiss the notion that her candidacy is backward-looking in a bad way. “Some people say, 'There she goes talking about the '90s again,'” she said, drawing laughter from the crowd. “Well, it wasn't so bad. We had policies that actually helped to create 22.7 million new jobs. The typical Iowan family saw an increase of $7,000 in their incomes during the '90s.”

At campaign stop later in the day in Portsmouth, N.H., Edwards responded to Clinton's comments. “There are 37 million people living in poverty in America. Alleviating poverty is the cause of my life,” he said. “What I would ask Hillary Clinton and the other candidates to do is to join me for calling for an increase in the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour, and to put forth a comprehensive plan to eliminate poverty, which I have done.”
…

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2007/12/19/post_244.html
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Why all the concern about Poverty all of a sudden from Hillary? Will she commit to a higher minimum wage — at $9.50 ?

Could be that they see Edwards Message connecting with the people:

AP
 
Edwards says he's anti-poverty candidate
 

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. – Democrat John Edwards said Wednesday he's the presidential candidate who's made fighting poverty the cause of his life, trying to lay claim to the issue as the first voting of the 2008 campaign nears.
…
Edwards, on the second day of a brief swing through New Hampshire, said Clinton's remark was “a veiled reference to me, and he took issue with it.

“She said something about people talking about poverty, but you know, what are we going to do about it?” Edwards said to reporters. “Let me just be clear, ending poverty in this country is the cause of my life and I am completely committed to it.”
…

Last month in Iowa, Obama offered a package of proposals aimed at halting growing income inequity, including an overhaul of bankruptcy laws and tax breaks to make college more affordable for the middle class. He has said he supports raising the minimum wage each year as the cost of living rises and has said repeatedly that people who have jobs should not be unable to make ends meet.

Clinton has said she will “restore the basic bargain that if Americans work hard and take responsibility, government will do its part to make sure they have the tools to get ahead.” She also has said she will make sure that labor unions are strong.

Edwards has said that, if elected, he would attack poverty by making it easier for unions to organize, creating temporary jobs for people who can't find work, expanding the federal Earned Income Tax Credit, adding 1 million new federally subsidized housing vouchers and creating universal kindergarten and pre-school.

Edwards has been nearly alone among the candidates in making poverty a centerpiece of his platform and standard remarks, incorporating it into his populist “America Rising” message focused on helping the little guy by taking on corporations and special interests. Edwards always notes his personal journey from poor beginnings in North Carolina to super-rich trial lawyer and U.S. senator. He calls poverty a moral wrong the nation must right, and he staged an eight-stop poverty tour in July.

Clinton's reference on Wednesday to poverty was brief as well as low-key, seemingly as much in line with her efforts to establish her experience as to go after Edwards. However, the Clinton campaign is taking Edwards seriously here as polls show him still in a tight pack with Obama and her just two weeks before the Jan. 3 caucuses.
…

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071219/ap_po/edwards_poverty_3
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Middle Class Rising

Edwards Outlines Middle Class Rising Agenda, as part of his Graniteroots Tour, in NH

Manchester, NH – On the second day of his Graniteroots trip with special guests Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne, Senator John Edwards outlined his bold vision to lift up middle-class families and make sure that all Americans have a fair shot at the American Dream. Today, Raitt and Browne performed at town hall meetings in Portsmouth and Manchester before Edwards took the stage to discuss his Middle Class Rising agenda.
…

To help the middle class rise again, Edwards' Middle Class Rising agenda will:

   – Create good jobs: Edwards will invest in renewable sources of energy to create new industries and at least 1 million new, good-paying jobs. He will pursue a trade policy that ends tax loopholes for companies that send American jobs overseas, and end the NAFTA trade model. Edwards will also raise the minimum wage, reform our tax code, build career ladders, and strengthen organized labor.

   – Give middle-class families the tools to build a secure financial future: Edwards will create Universal Retirement Accounts that people can take with them from job to job, and to respond to the mortgage crisis, he will pass a tough new national law to prevent predatory lending abuses. Edwards will also reign in credit card and other abusive lending practices by creating a new consumer watchdog agency.

   – Remove the burdens that are weighing families down: Edwards will help families afford rising home heating costs, make sure that college is affordable for everyone, so that every child can have a fair shot at the American Dream, help people balance their work and home lives by making sure that workplace policies are keeping up with changes in the economy, through expanding early education programs, providing paid leave, including sick leave, to all workers, and expanding job protection under the Family and Medical Leave Act.

   – Create universal health care in America: Edwards' top domestic priority will be making sure that every man, woman and child in America is covered with high-quality care.

http://johnedwards.com/news/press-releases/20071219-middle-class-rising/
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So Edwards cares about the Poor, and the Middle Class — that's good to know!

It takes a strong and growing Middle Class, to have a strong and growing Country!

If you needed any more indication of Edwards “surging” popularity — check this out!

A Real Edwards Surge

Marc Ambinder

Is John Edwards's surge a media-created phenomenon, a collective reaction formation to the media's desire to see a three-person race, or guilt for building up Barack Obama? Does the media really have that power?

Or are we seeing something more organic?

On Monday, the Edwards campaign recorded more e-mail sign-ups than almost any day in its history.

Over the weekend, the campaign was forced to add four new servers to handle all the web traffic.

Contributions are up online: Thursday and Friday, the two days after the debate, made for one of the highest 2-day totals they've seen in months. (He's been ubiquitous on national television — morning shows and Sunday shows.)

Those are national totals.

What about Iowa? There are two metrics, one of which we don't have available: their hard count of confirmed caucus goers. The other is crowds.

Not only has Edwards been greeted by unusually large crowds for him, he is outdrawing Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton head-to-head. In Des Moines Monday, Edwards drew 400 to Hillary Clinton's 200; in Mason City on Saturday night, Edwards drew 600 to Obama's roughly 300.
…

http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2007/12/a_real_edwards_surge.php
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They must of blew a fuse, the donations were pouring in so fast! Four more Servers, that's some serious Hardware!

I have full confidence the People will keep stepping up, by putting their Money, where their REAL Hope is — in the Fighter, John Edwards who will go to the mat for them!

When you have a few extra bucks to spare here's where:

http://johnedwards.com/

(I heard that 94% of his donations, are from individuals like you and me, and were less than $250 — NOW that's grassroots power!)

A writer at the Huffingtonpost can see the momentum shifting for Edwards:

John Edwards' Closing Argument — And Why The Media Doesn't Get It

Jonathan Tasini

John Edwards is making his closing argument with the voters of Iowa — and the media elites are having a hard time trying to understand why he is now drawing increasingly larger crowds.
…

 And, to some extent, this has been the media's problem from the outset. Elites like Negourney don't get that there is an absolute connection between what Edwards says about “Two Americas” — that we have a few people who are doing quite well while most people are not. When Edwards says this:

“We have an epic fight in front of us, and anybody who thinks that's not true is living in a fantasy world,” Mr. Edwards said. “How long are we going to let insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies run this country? Every time this has happened in our country, the American people have risen up and taken action.”

…he is exactly talking about the fight by one part of America to take back the country, with another part of the country — the elites, particularly in business — determined to hold on to its power and privilege.

In the article, Nagourney quotes from the Des Moines Register endorsement of Sen. Clinton:

“Edwards was our pick for the 2004 nomination,” the editors wrote. “But this is a different race, with different candidates. We too seldom saw the positive, optimistic campaign we found appealing in 2004. His harsh anti-corporate rhetoric would make it difficult to work with the business community to forge change.”

The frame that Edwards' message is “harsh anti-corporate rhetoric” makes it even more difficult for the elites to understand why Edwards has strong appeal. These folks don't understand what many Americans understand:

We don't need a candidate — or, for that matter, a president — who believes that their job is to get along with business, or that the way to turn things around in America is to have a pleasant conversation with business. This has been the chain around our collective necks for lo these many decades. We need a president who, first and foremost, understands the interests of working people and, then, asks the question: how can business serve those interests?

We need a president who understands what it means to have trade that benefits people, not corporations.

We need a president who understands that the greed of the health care industry is literally killing people.

We need a president who understands what it means to support unions.
…

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-tasini/john-edwards-closing-arg_b_77466.html
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Even if the Media has been somewhat slow to respond to Edwards — the People haven't been.

Sometimes the Media are the Last to Know!

And not to miss a deeper meaning of the Holiday Season, John Edwards has just released, another very moving Ad:

New Holiday Ad Campaign

 
In this latest television spot, John Edwards promises to speak for those Americans who are too often forgotten, especially during In this latest television spot, John Edwards promises to speak for those Americans who are too often forgotten, especially during the holiday season.

John Edwards:
 

One out of every four homeless people on our streets is a veteran.

Thirty-seven million Americans live in poverty.

Who speaks for them? We do.

This is the season of miracles, of faith and love.

So let us promise together: you will never be forgotten again.

We see you, we hear you, and we will speak for you.

In America, the chance to build a better life is a promise made to each of us, and the obligation to keep it rests with us all.

http://johnedwards.com/news/press-releases/20071219-holiday-ad/
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Good Question:  Who speaks for them?

Have a wonderful Evening and thanks for stopping by!

Yes indeed things are starting to get VERY interesting …

Stay tuned.