(12-19) 04:00 PST Ottumwa, Iowa --Article here:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg i?f=/c/a/2007/12/19/MNU3U0Q0Q.DTL
More than 150 Iowans were rustling in their chairs at a community college here the other night, waiting for John Edwards. His bus was parked and running outside the door, but it was nearly 45 minutes before he finally made his characteristically late entrance.
When he did, Edwards strode in as if he were climbing into a boxing ring. For half an hour, he talked about fighting special interests and battling corporations. He urged his audience to "rise up" against health care companies and insurance executives. Pugilistic until the end, he loudly told a story of how his father ordered him to go out and "kick that guy's butt" after he came home from school with a bloodied nose, suggesting that was a lesson he would carry into the White House as well.
"We have an epic fight in front of us, and anybody who thinks that's not true is living in a fantasy world," 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."
Edwards, a North Carolina Democrat, almost won the Iowa caucuses in 2004 by introducing, in the final weeks of the contest, a closing argument that drew huge crowds and, polls suggest, rallied supporters to his corner right up until the night of the vote.
Now, Edwards, a former trial lawyer, is offering yet another closing argument to his jury of voters here. And there is evidence - from the size of his crowds to the decision by an opponent, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, to challenge him more directly in the past few days - that it may be working.
.
He is issuing a defiant pledge to fight big business, to voters in a state that has been buffeted by national and global economic forces and is still reeling from the closing of a Maytag plant in Newton in October. He is accompanied on some of his stops by one of the 3,900 Iowans who used to work there, and points to the closing as evidence of the damage that trade agreements have done to the middle class. In his speech here, he used the word "fight" about a dozen times in 25 minutes. In television advertisements, he tells voters he is angry and ready to battle on their behalf.And he is arguing that he is far more electable than Obama or Clinton, an argument that, like his economic populist pitch, has resonated in the past with Democrats in this state.
|
|
|
Permalink :: 22 Comments :: Post a Comment
|
In order to post a comment, you must be logged in. If you have a member account, please log in to comment.
If not, you can make an account right here. It's quick and free.
