John Edwards: The Third Podcast
by Jude Nagurney Camwell
Washington "insiders" are talking about John Edwards, and so are his grassroots supporters.
John and Elizabeth have taken time from their busy schedules to talk a bit about themselves, so you won't have to consult the "insiders" in order to find out what's happening in their public and private lives. Their third podcast is available for listening at this link.
What Has John Edwards Been Doing This Month?
John Edwards has recently returned from a trip overseas, which ended in London. There, he had the opportunity to meet with Prime Minister Tony Blair. They discussed issues such as Europe, the EU Constitution, Iran and their nuclear program, Russia and Putin, Blair Initiatives on Africa, Global Climate Change, China, Global Poverty, and some politics.
Sen. Edwards also met with Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown about the issue of Poverty. (Rumor has it that that Brown will succeed Blair.) Edwards gave a speech at the London School of Economics, where he'd found an interesting attitudinal dichotomy between British and U.S. students, which he gleaned by participating in an hour-long political Q & A session with students after the aforementioned speech. There was much more of a sense of hostility in the questions from people coming from outside the U.S. regarding topics such as the Guantanamo Bay prison (Gitmo), the alleged abuse of the Koran, America's methods of interrogating terror detainees, the treatment of enemy combatants, fair legal represenation for prisoners, etc. You can listen to speech (and future speeches) at the One America website (and see my own summary here).
Edwards has been attending events and working for Democratic state legislative caucuses in South Carolina, Michigan, and other states - as part of his Raising the States project for the building of more effective grassroots political organizations. (See Raising the States from the One America site) Sen. Edwards and his wife Elizabeth say there are two fronts on which they believe there must be a fight. First, it's important to have state legislatures who believe in the things we, the people, believe in. We must understand the role of an active government in order to do what must be done. However, a secondary point is that we need to see this as a virtual building bench for people who'll run in future gubernatorial, senate, and presidential contests.
Patsy Madrid, the current attorney general of New Mexico, has been aggressive - as has the attorney general of North Carolina Roy Cooper, on keeping tabs on predatory lending and other issues. Now, the Federal government wants to usurp state law and have federal law take precedence so the state laws are, in effect, made useless by the federal pre-emption.
There is not enough being done to build the party from the ground-up, and we need to empower people at local levels to get involved with Democratic party. You can read a synopsis of prospective State candidates at the One America site. Sen. and Mrs Edwards ask you to get involved with choosing your state legislators and to support these candidates, even if you are not from their respective states.
Council on Foreign Relations: Committee
John Edwards just returned from first meeting of the Council on Foreign Relations' new Independent Task Force for the review of current U.S. policy toward Russia. They will make recommendations on future policy - from global security to Russia's evolution as a democratic state. Edwards will be co-Chairing the Task Force with Jack Kemp. They've been working on the plans for the new Committee for many weeks now, with some of the foremost experts on Russia in the world. Issues they'll cover are: co-operating against terrorism, non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, strategic energy partnerships, (de-)democratization, Russia's relations with its neighbors, Cold War legacy issues, and Chechnya.
The main question is: What will happen over next three years? Putin cannot run for President again, and with an election coming in 2008, there is no successor to have been groomed by Putin at the present time.
The Family
Jack and Emma Claire both had birthday celebrations this month. The "Jack-event" included real lizards and snakes, along with improvisational theater. Feeling "old age" setting in, Jack said to his father:
"I just can't believe I'm turning 5, Dad!"
John was happy to report that Elizabeth has finished her last treatment for breast cancer. She'd had chemotherapy first, then surgery, then a series of radiation treatments. Elizabeth plans to take a relaxing summer and spend it with the children, along with doing some reading and writing, and she hopes she will be in fighting form in the fall.
The Book forum at One America
John and Elizabeth have started a book forum at the One America site.
The book they've chosen for June's forum focus will be "The Working Poor" by David Shipler, which is an easy and compelling read. Anyone interested in participating is welcome. David has kindly agreed to participate in the forum.
If enough people are interested, the Book forum will be continued. Please send book suggestions to OneAmericacommittee.com. A "Bookcast" (podcast) with David Shipler will be forthcoming. Visit the Book Forum.
Currently, these are the books John and Elizabeth are reading:
Elizabeth - 'Gilead' by Marilynne Robninson
John - by "The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman, "The End of Poverty" by Jefferey Sachs, "Ugly Americans" by Ben Mazrich, and "1776" by David Mccullough (He says he's reading them all a bit a at a time and that he's about halfway through all of them except "1776", which he's just started to read.
Now Available: Video Blog
A new video blog was launched Thursday, June 2 at the One America site. Edwards will videoblog while traveling, and it will be informal but substantive.
Visit the new videoblog at One America.
RSS feeds to which you can subscribe are listed here.
Questions
Q: Mark LeVine asks about the problem of the United States' ever-increasing debt held by China.
Sen Edwards says that the bigger issue is the rising economic power of China and India. U.S. jobs are steadily leaving, and are being outsourced, for China and India. Over next 20-40 years, China will undoubtedly become an increasingly powerful competitive global economic force. America is going deeper and deeper into debt under President Bush, and China is holding more and more of America's debt. These countries understand that the best way to compete is through the field of Education. In the fields of Math, the Sciences, and Technology, we could lose economic advantage and opportunity for ourselves if we fail to maintain educational standards comparative to those of nations like China and India.
A crackdown is necessary on the Chinese government's ability to manipulate their own currency, allowing them to dump goods on the American markets much cheaper than they otherwise would be able to.
We need an American President (not George Bush) who will stop putting the United States deeper and deeper into deficit and get us back on a path to operating our government in a responsible way. We need to invest more in graduate education for young people, especially in the areas of concern. (Math, Sciences, Technology). We should be finding ways to create incentives for young people to become interested in those areas.
Elizabeth Edwards commented that President Bush has taken us down the wrong path on trade in his failure to enforce existing trade agreements and in his failure to act agressively against China's currency manipulation. In his most recent press conference, President Bush said that we shouldn't leave a burden for our children - and he's talking about Social Security - but he should be concentrating on the deficit he's leaving for our children. We can't stop the Chinese from buying
T-bills when they're auctioned, but we know it has left us vulnerable to China's rapidly increasing economic power; leaving us at a disadvantage. We have ourselves - our own government - to blame. We've gotten ourselves into this. Because China has become such a huge creditor, they have a big stick with which to hit us. But, the truth is, it comes at a price to them, too. They'd have to have some real hesitation before dumping - or doing something to ruin the credit of the United States.
Q: Tammy Lane asked, regarding the Nuclear Option:
"What do you think of the compromise that was reached?"
First, Sen Edwards stated that he has "no idea what the Republicans were thinking." The reality is, he says, that one of two things would have happened had there been no compromise and they got rid of the filibuster:
- Democrats could have shut the Senate down.
- So much hinges upon cooperation in the Senate, as politically confident the Republican leadership in the Senate may feel at this time, one thing that is certain is that the Democrats will be back in power someday They would be remiss to throw away the Senate's long-standing tradition of cooperation since they will be affected by the rule change someday.
Although Sen. Edwards considers the compromise a win for Senate Democrats, these right wing judges going through because of the compromise agreement are unacceptable. They are, in a word (said twice for effect) "terrible, terrible choices" and they run against everything we believe in as Democrats.
Q: When are the Edwards moving back to North Carolina?
On June 8, the kids will finish school for the year - and teh Edwards plan to make the move in mid-June. They will eventually move to a new home in Chapel Hill (next Spring), but for now, they will be at their house in Raleigh. Elizabeth said she was pulling out stuff for summer vacation and is having a lot of "fun" deciding what to pack - and for where?
June 10th is John's birthday, and they'd all like to be in one place for that special family celebration.
The Edwards want to hear from you. Your questions are very imporatnt to them. Send them by e-mail, by videoblog, however you can get your questions to them.
Other Summaries:
Podcast One
Podacst Two
ADDITIONAL NOTE: See Edwards' speech today at the Take Back America Conference.
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