Edwards Evening News: America Belongs to Us

Welcome to tonight's Edwards Evening News. Today, the Edwards campaign unveiled the America Belongs to Us campaign with a goal of getting one million voters to sign a pledge not to vote or caucus for any candidate who takes money from lobbyists and PACs. America belongs to all of us, and we're taking our country back! Click the image to sign the pledge.



Here's more on why America Belongs to Us from TomP's diary earlier today.

The "AMERICA BELONGS TO US" 2008 Pledge and website was anounced today by the Edwards campaign.

Lobbyists have taken control in Washington and America’s hard-working families pay the price. They've stopped universal health care. They've secured unfair and unsafe trade deals that have cost America good middle-class jobs. They've left our children at risk from unsafe toys. They've sabotaged clean energy legislation that would address global warming. And they've squashed efforts for cheaper generic prescription drugs. Enough is enough. America belongs to us.

If you want real change, Sign the Pledge:

Because I believe we need real change in America and an end to the broken system in Washington that works for special interests and not us, I pledge not to vote or caucus for a Democratic presidential candidate that accepts campaign contributions from Washington lobbyists and special interest PACs.

AmericaBelongsToUs2008.com

Edwards Walks the Picket Line with Striking Writers in New York

Yesterday, John Edwards walked the picket line in New York with striking members of the Writers Guild of America East. This is the second time during this presidential campaign that he has walked the picket line with striking workers, as Miss Laura pointed out in her front page diary earlier today. (It's definitely not the first time that he's showed up to support union workers, however, having participated in nearly 200 union events over the years.)




Edwards speaking to striking writers in New York

Edwards Explains His Healthcare Mandate

Today, Edwards explained the details of his healthcare mandate, which allows his healthcare plan to be truly universal.

"We need true universal health care reform that covers every single man, woman, and child in America. It is wrong to leave anyone without the care they need. A universal system will work better for all of us – delivering better care at lower cost.

"Barack Obama's plan leaves out 15 million people. The truth is that some people will choose not to buy insurance even though it's affordable, knowing that the rest of us will pay for their emergency room visits.

"But it is just as bad to say that everyone will have insurance without a plan to get there. Hillary Clinton says her plan will cover everyone through a 'mandate' but does not provide even the most rudimentary idea much less a detailed plan of how this 'mandate' would work. To get fundamental change in our health care system, we need a fundamental change in our politics. That starts with being clear and direct about what we are going to do and how we are going to do it."

Edwards' truly universal health care plan will ensure that every American has health insurance. He will require proof of insurance when income taxes are paid and when health care is provided. Families without insurance will be enrolled in Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP or another targeted plan or be assigned a plan within new Health Care Markets.

Families who lose coverage will be expected to enroll in another plan or be assigned one. For the few people who refuse to pay, the government will help collect back premiums with interest and collection costs by using tools like the ones it uses for student loans and taxes, including collection agencies and wage garnishment.

Ezra Klein at Tapped had this to say:

Later today, John Edwards will announce the specifics of how his mandate works. And they're quite good. Whenever you come into contact with the health care system, or whenever you pay your taxes, you will be asked to provide proof of insurance, presumably a policy number or some similar identifier. If you cannot, you will automatically be enrolled in either a public plan that you qualify for (like Medicaid or S-CHIP) or the cheapest plan offered by his Health Insurance Market. Bills will then get sent out, and if they're not paid, will be collected just like the government collects on student loan debts, or taxes, or anything else, using tools up to and including collection agencies and wage garnishment. (It's notable, here, that Edwards doesn't shy away from saying what his stick will be.)

In this way, Edwards' plan is much less an individual mandate and much closer to a government mandate. The burden is less on the individual to seek new insurance and more on the government to simply enroll them in it. From there, they can opt in to a different insurer if they so choose, or simply stay with their default plan. It's a smart and efficient way to move towards universality, and, for now, it puts Edwards ahead of both Obama and Clinton on the substance of the policy, and the speed with which he presented it to the public.

PSSST! I hear a new ad is coming out in Iowa

I hear through the blogosphere grapevine that a new ad is coming out in Iowa in a couple of weeks, and our own Im4JRE, a longtime supporter from the Edwards blog, was there when they filmed it! So cool! Check out her first hand account:

John was relaxed and joked with all of us and he thanked us for our patience, hah...like it was an effort to see and listen to him...not.

I won't tell you what the ad was about as you will see it for yourselves in a week or two.

After the camera men were through, they took pictures of JRE just talking to the crowd, no sound, and it wasn't about politics, just ordinary people talking about this and that. I did ask JRE that when he won the Iowa caucus, would he wait for me to get to the celebration before he made his VICTORY speech... and he said for all to hear... Count on it!

I wanted to share this event with all of you to let you know that JRE is our man for President and that he is powerful and he will stand with us and for us to make America ours again.

You can read more in her diary. Congratulations, Im4JRE!



Send Out the E-Signal! Upcoming Events!

Edwards will be on Charlie Rose tomorrow, November 29th. Check your local listings. It's on at 12:35 PM where I am in Maryland. Thanks so much to Terre for this information! Charlie Rose also has a page of prior interviews with John Edwards.

UPDATE: Terre also tells me that Keith Olbermann will be interviewing John live from the campaign trail tomorrow on Countdown on MSNBC. Couldn't find confirmation on his web site, but anyway, Keith is always worth watching!

Also tomorrow:

John Edwards will deliver remarks to the Iowa City Foreign Relations Council
Nov 29, 2007
6:00 PM
Hotel Vetro
201 S Linn Street
Iowa City, Iowa
Click here to RSVP

John Edwards will speak to the DNC Fall Meeting outside of DC in Vienna, Virginia on Friday morning. I was at his speech to the DNC Winter Meeting much earlier this year, and it was fabulous! If you are in the DC area, come out to support John! You can RSVP for the event at the link above.

If you can come to an early state and volunteer, the campaign would love your help. Sign up here.

Some Cool Diaries You May Have Missed

Democratic Presidential Ads in NH and Iowa - What do you think? by Ellinorianne

A Plea to Early State Democrats From an Edwards Supporter by RDemocrat

John Edwards, in dead heat in Iowa, quietly starts to move up in NH and SC by JSamuel

UPDATED: Edwards wins SEIU NH Endorsement!

Edwards has won the New Hampshire SEIU endorsement according to MSNBC First Read.

After weeks of intense lobbying by the top three Democratic presidential candidates, Edwards has come away with the endorsement of the New Hampshire SEIU.

The endorsement will help Edwards considerably, providing him with financial resources and volunteers in the Granite state. It will also prevent other state chapters from sending volunteers to New Hampshire to campaign for either Obama or Clinton.

This is the 12th state SEIU endorsement Edwards has won; the others include Iowa and California.

Wow! So that's several key endorsements in some very key states. He now has SEIU worker power locked up in both Iowa and New Hampshire, as well California and 9 other states. This should be very helpful going into the early caucuses and primaries.

Here's a video from October 15th, when he won the endorsement of the SEIU in 10 of those states.



And here was the news from that day:

Service Employees International Union (SEIU) state councils from Iowa, California, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Minnesota, Michigan, West Virginia, Ohio and Oregon announced they have endorsed Senator John Edwards for president, totaling close to one million SEIU members.
Representatives from several of the ten state councils joined Edwards for a press conference at the Eckstein Medical Research Building in Iowa City. The endorsements will allow these SEIU state councils, which collectively represent over 930,000 members, to organize efforts to turn out caucus goers on Edwards' behalf within Iowa, and in any other state where the SEIU state councils have also endorsed Edwards. SEIU state councils across the country will be determining their endorsement decisions in the coming weeks.

UPDATE: I was reminded, thanks to the comments at Daily Kos, that this means 90,000 SEIU members from neighboring Massachusetts, where SEIU has also endorsed Edwards, can come to New Hampshire to help out.

The news from Oct. 18th:

The Massachusetts council of the Service Employees International Union on Thursday joined 10 other state chapters endorsing Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards.

The council, which represents 90,000 workers in Massachusetts, cited Edwards' record on health care.

Also, I really should have included this video of John Edwards' closing remarks at the SEIU convention in Washington, DC in the original post.



UPDATED 2nd time:

I want to thank okamichan13 for pointing out the wise words of kos.

SEIU New Hampshire is obviously important (and is getting wooed to death), but also important will be SEIU Massachusetts, with 75,000 members a couple of hours (at most) from New Hampshire. If a candidate can get both the Mass and New Hampshire locals, he or she should get a real boost.

I posted this earlier on Daily Kos.

John Edwards wins support of SEIU from 10 States

Today, 10 SEIU state councils announced their support for John Edwards, including Iowa, California, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Minnesota, Michigan, West Virginia, Ohio and Oregon.

"California SEIU members know that John Edwards will be the best labor president in the history of the United States," said Sal Rosselli, president of SEIU United Healthcare Workers West. "His proposals are far and away the best among the candidates on the issues that matter most to working Americans. Edwards has taken principled stands on workers' behalf, when others took more cautious positions on issues that demand bold action."

This brings his labor union support up to nearly 3 million union members nationwide.

Iowa SEIU endorses John Edwards

This morning, John Edwards won the endorsement of the Iowa SEIU. Endorsements from several other state councils are rumored to be soon to follow.

Here's a video of Edwards speaking about the right to organize at the SEIU conference in DC back in September.

Event Report: John Edwards at SEIU

Yesterday, John Edwards spoke to a rowdy, roaring crowd of SEIU leaders at their political action conference in Washington, DC. I was there, and it was fabulous! This was the wildest, most exuberant reception I've ever seen him receive, and I've been to quite a few events where he has received exuberant receptions. We won't know for sure until the SEIU decides on an endorsement, but if I had to guess, my guess is he gets it.

I am not an SEIU member, but I contacted their press contact in advance and signed up to receive a press pass as a blogger. I love the fact that so many organizations now see the value of citizen journalists! We help them get more attention for their events, and they let us into the events, which is pretty cool.

I didn't plan it this way, but I arrived at the conference just in time to hear Hillary Clinton give her speech. In it, she finally, after all these months, laid out some of the details of her health care plan. Actually, what I should say is that she laid out some of the details of John Edwards' health care plan. I was taking notes on her plan just until slightly after this became obvious, and then I made the following note to myself: "Why am I writing down JRE's health care plan, when I already know it?"

I'm not the only person who believes that Hillary Clinton copied John Edwards's health care plan like a school kid cheating on a test. In his speech before LiUNA yesterday, Edwards noted that if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, he feels very flattered.



Now, maybe it's a good thing that Edwards has pushed Clinton to come out with a more ambitious health care plan than she might have otherwise. Hey! If it means that whoever gets elected, we get universal health care out of it, I'm all for it. But, I still think there are some differences, if not between the plans, then at least between the two candidates' attitudes toward the plans.

For one thing, John Edwards has said that on his first day in office, he will propose legislation to Congress that will take away the health care of the president, Congress, and all political appointees on July 20, 2009, if they don't pass universal health care during his first six months in office. If it seems unlikely that Congress would pass such legislation, just consider the public humiliation of congressional leaders if they both refuse to pass this legislation and also fail to pass universal health care. I happen to think that Edwards is taking a smart, bold step here that will make it much more likely that universal health care will pass.

Hillary Clinton, on the other hand has at various times said that she would pass universal health care by the end of her second term. Apparently, she doesn't think it's a problem for America to go without universal health care for another eight years. She's also leaving to chance the possibility that she may not get a second term.

John Edwards says that he will fight for universal health care with everything he's got. Clinton may say the same thing. I don't know. The difference is, I believe John.

The other big difference is, John Edwards has rejected the very notion of taking contributions from lobbyists, while Hillary Clinton will take their money, give them a seat at the table, and as John Edwards says, let them eat all the food.

I don't mean this diary to be a compare and contrast between John Edwards and Hillary Clinton on health care, and I don't mean it to be a hit on Clinton. It is an event report on the speeches I heard at the SEIU political action conference. I would not be reporting truthfully, however, if I did not note that my overall impression of Clinton's speech was that she was greatly "flattering" John Edwards and his universal health care plan.

John Edwards is like a force of nature when he enters the room. With a smile that may be a form of alternative energy in itself, he grabs every hand he can reach and greets everyone as if he were there only to see them. Maybe he's not a rock star, but that's OK because rock stars crash and burn. John Edwards seems to carry an inevitable power within him.

The crowd is on its feet and actually dancing for six or seven minutes as John Edwards makes his way to the stage. A sea of John Edwards 08 signs appears above the crowd in purple T-shirts, many of which say "John Edwards 08 Fighting for One America" and on the back "He Walks the Walk."

On the big TV screens, you see pure joy on his face as he bounds over to Elaine Ellis, the nursing home worker in whose shoes he walked a day, and kisses her warmly.

Then Edwards starts his speech, and it is like distant thunder soon to build to a powerful storm.



He speaks of his usual themes. Universal health care -- with a new promise that he will propose legislation on his first day in office that will take away the health care of the President, Congress, and all political appointees if universal health care is not passed for all of America within the first six months of his presidency. Clinton just got on stage and proposed his health care plan. John Edwards wants to let us know that HE will be the one that will get it passed.

He speaks of taking on the lobbyists and fighting them and beating them and there is a growl in his voice that hints of a tiger stalking its prey. I wouldn't want to be those lobbyists!

Edwards tells the SEIU members he can't possibly list all the times and places he has stood with them, and they know it is true. Over and over again, he brings them to their feet and they erupt in cheers so loud he cannot continue speaking. Over and over the chant comes back: "ED-WARDS! ED-WARDS! ED-WARDS! ED-WARDS!"

I don't think I've ever seen a crowd so pumped up. I've heard many a fine speech from Edwards, and this one is right up there with his brilliant best.

Just when the excitement is reaching a frenzy, Edwards says he wants to bring it down for a moment. Most amazing of all, they're right with him, and the room falls into a hush.



Quieter now, Edwards speaks of the difficult decision that he and Elizabeth had to make back in that hospital room in March, when they learned that Elizabeth's cancer had returned. He speaks of how they made the decision together that they want their lives to make a difference, how the movement for justice they are leading is the cause of their lives.

He lists the reasons he's running for president of the United States, and they are the people he would represent. He speaks of them as if he sees all of their faces before him.

I've been sitting there silently throughout his whole speech. I am shooting video, and I don't want to scream and yell and jostle the camera. I am sitting with the press, and knowing that I would be, I am incognito. There is not an Edwards T-shirt or button on me, and I'm even a little dressed up.

But now, as he speaks of the people he would work for as President, my façade comes down. Tears come to my eyes. Pretty soon there are enough of them that I can't hide them.

"It's clear what I'm going to do," he tells them. "The question is, what are you going to do?"

Several voices shout "Yeah!"

Then he invokes the Reverend Martin Luther King. He reminds the crowd that in the words of Dr. King, "silence is a betrayal." He reminds all of us of our responsibility to participate in bringing about the change that we need so badly.

Edwards describes the America in his vision, and my tears are really flowing now. I want it to be true. He tells us we can step into the promised land, and I know in my heart it is true. But will we?

He asks us to trust our hearts, and my hand wants to go to mine. "Do you believe?" He asks, and the crowd is on its feet and so am I.

Edwards leaves the stage, and the ballots come out. Good timing for the straw poll, I am thinking. I do not have a vote, so I watch the voting proceed for a moment, hoping that Edwards has enough SEIU members on his side. I am optimistic, because of the wild enthusiasm that greeted him.

I had an opportunity to speak briefly with John Edwards a little bit later. I congratulated him on his fantastic speech, and he really seemed pumped up about how well it went.

I also had the opportunity to speak with him about something that has been bothering me. A week or two ago, his campaign put out a press release on worker safety. The press release mentioned workers comp, and promised that he would do a nationwide review of state-level workers comp laws, then use the bully pulpit of the White House to urge the states to do the right thing for injured workers. I brought up the press release, and told him that having been through the workers comp system in California, I know that some of the states just aren't doing their jobs on this. I told him that I think there need to be federally mandated minimum standards for workers comp benefits.

John responded that in fact many of the states are not doing their jobs on this, but that workers comp has been traditionally handled at the state level. This I knew. I just think it may be time for the federal government to step in. John looked me right in the eye and promised me that if it is necessary and possible to have federally mandated minimum standards for workers comp, he will do it. When John Edwards tells you something face-to-face, you believe him. His word is good enough for me.

People who haven't met John often seem to have a very different view of him than people that have met him. I'm not sure why that is. I suspect it's because on TV he seems just a little too handsome, a little too smart, and a little too eloquent to be quite real. That all changes when you meet him. He's real, alright. And he's GOOD!

Having met him a few times now, I'm amused by people who think he's just another politician. I understand why they find it hard to trust someone running for office. I really do. It's just that I trust John. He tells the truth. It's that simple. Wouldn't that be a nice quality in a president?

If you agree, check out johnedwards.com and maybe make a donation through ActBlue.