Jen O’Malley Dillon is our campaign’s Iowa State Director – she posted this wrap up on the John Edwards blog and I wanted to make sure to share it with the Bleeding Heartland community! Thank you for following along with us on our bus tour! – -Tracy Joan.
Seven days. Thirty-one counties. Hundreds of miles. Thousands of people. What a week!
At every single stop John and Elizabeth were overwhelmed by your energy, your enthusiasm, your insightful questions, your moving personal stories, and your support.
It's day #5 of the Fighting for One America Iowa Bus Tour and once again, we've got loads to report from the last 24 hours.
George put together a great photo essay over on the John Edwards blog. And check out the vidoes from the day:
The day was spent talking about health care and John called for a major expansion of children's health insurance as an immediate step toward universal health care. He also unveiled his Iowa Children and Youth Cabinet, a wide-ranging group of Iowans with first hand knowledge of the issues facing young people today. The group consists of 31 children's advocates, community leaders, teachers and parents from across the state who will advise Edwards and his campaign on children's policy.
Today we're headed to Centerville, Bloomfield, Keokuk, Burlington, Wapello and Iowa City. You can expect to hear John talk about energy issues today, including the importance of getting Iowa's biofuels on America's roads.
As part of his plan to speed up the use of biofuels on our roads, John Edwards will:
Give Kids a Biofuel Ride to School: Today, Edwards announced a new Biofuel Buses program to help school districts replace conventional diesel with cleaner-burning biodiesel blends in 100,000 school buses nationwide. Biodiesel reduces bus-riding children’s exposure to cancer and asthma-causing emissions.
Boost Biofuel Production: Edwards will invest in public-private research partnerships to develop ways to maximize America’s biofuel ouput while minimizing pollution, soil erosion, and water, land and energy use.
Build Out the Biofuels Infrastructure: Edwards will require oil companies to install biofuel pumps at 25 percent of their gas stations and require all new cars sold after 2010 to be “flex fuel” cars running on either gasoline or biofuel.
Make American Cars and Trucks Virtually Petroleum-Free: Edwards believes that American automakers have the ingenuity to lead the world in building the clean, safe, economical cars of the future. He will provide $1 billion a year to help U.S. automakers advance and apply the latest technology, including biofuels, hybrid and electric cars, hydrogen fuel cells, ultra-light materials, and drive train improvements.
Raise Fuel Economy Standards: Edwards believes that everyone should be able to drive the car, truck or SUV of their choice and still enjoy high fuel economy. American cars and trucks are less efficient than they were two decades ago, despite the corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards. Edwards will raise standards to 40 miles per gallon by 2016, a step that could single-handedly reduce oil demand by 4 million barrels per day.
As always, we hope you can make it out to meet us on the road. You can follow along online at johnedwards.com/iowa. The Friday and Saturday bus tour schedules are below the fold!
Yesterday's scattered showers couldn't slow down the Fighting for One America bus tour as it rolled through Iowa. John and Elizabeth made their way through Manly, Osage, Charles City, Waterloo and Waverly. Over on the John Edwards blog, George documented their stops with some photo-blogging.
We've also got another set of videos from the road:
Finally, before the last stop of the day, Mrs. Edwards stopped by DailyKos for a live-blogging session where she answered questions about a number of topics and even got some tips from Bleeding Heartland's own “DesMoinesDem” who advised Mrs. Edwards:
If your kids like lemonade, the best deal at the fair is on the upper level of the ag building, where the honey producers sell lemonade sweetened with honey.
And if they like ice cream, I highly recommend the Bauder's truck right near the ag building!
Below the fold, I've got today's schedule and tomorrow's too! As always, we hope to meet you out on the road. If you can't check us out in person, remember that you can follow us online at johnedwards.com/iowa.
