Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards (news - web sites), D-N.C., looks back at his four-year-old son Jack wearing a cheesehead at a campaign rally Saturday, July 24, 2004, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Posted on 07/24/2004 9:40:17 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
MILWAUKEE - Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards (news - web sites) sought to rally voters in this battleground state Saturday, invoking the memory of Martin Luther King Jr., and urging Americans to come together on "the things that unite us, not the things that divide us."
Just two days before the start of the Democratic National Convention, Edwards focused on one Midwest swing state while presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites) set his sights on another — Iowa. The ticket's No. 2 said one of his missions is to introduce himself and the party's soon-to-be presidential nominee to voters who know little about the candidates.
"I know what this guy's made of, I saw him when his back was up against the wall," said Edwards, who finished second to the Massachusetts senator in the Iowa caucuses after both were deemed political also-rans and a strong second weeks later in the Wisconsin primary.
The first-term North Carolina senator recalled the life and words of Martin Luther King, Jr., speaking to a crowd of about 1,500 in a city park named for the slain civil rights leader.
"This is part of our trail to the convention. But many years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King. He blazed a different kind of freedom trail," Edwards said. "Having grown up the way he grew up, facing the discrimination, the segregation he faced every day of his life, he was here in Milwaukee in 1964 talking about hope and optimism and what's possible."
King's vision is "what John Kerry and I believe. We think it is at the core of this campaign," Edwards said. "But it has to be not just words."
"We have much to do in this country, not just in Wisconsin but all across America to focus on the values and the things that unite us, not the things that divide us," he said.
Edwards and Kerry are taking separate routes to the convention. Edwards was heading to San Antonio, Texas, on Saturday and planned to be in his home state of North Carolina Sunday and Monday before he and his family travel to Boston late Tuesday.
Edwards' wife, Elizabeth, told the crowd, "We are an unbelievably divided country. We saw it on the road coming in here. We need leaders who will end that." Edwards' motorcade was greeted by about a hundred demonstrators, some who chanted "Four More Years" and waved either Bush-Cheney or anti-abortion signs.
Stealing some of their parents' thunder were the Edwardses' two youngest children, Emma Claire, 6, and Jack, 4, who came on stage during their father's speech trying — not always successfully — to wear large, yellow plastic "cheese" wedges on their heads.
"My cheesehead kids," Edwards said, referring to the headgear often worn by Green Bay Packers football fans, known as "cheeseheads." The headgear is a tribute to the state's major dairy products.
In 2000, Democrat Al Gore (news - web sites) won Wisconsin by fewer than 6,000 votes, and both parties are battling for the state's 10 electoral votes. Recent state polls show Kerry with a slight lead, and Bush has made two bus tours to Wisconsin in the last two months.
Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., told the rally, "John Kerry and John Edwards are regular guys. These two men share our Wisconsin values ..."
It wasn't all smooth going at the event. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, the Wisconsin Kerry-Edwards co-chairman, introduced Elizabeth Edwards as "Marilyn."
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On the Net:
Kerry campaign: http://www.johnkerry.com
Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards (news - web sites), D-N.C., looks back at his four-year-old son Jack wearing a cheesehead at a campaign rally Saturday, July 24, 2004, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Edwards will be in San Antonio at Sunset Station tomorrow-Sunday the 25th.
He is then supposed to speak at a Church.
If anyone knows what Church, please post.
Thanks, Sockmonkey
What IS that thing on his lip? One would think he has the money to have it removed. It creeps me out.
There is nothing, absolutely nothing that could happen that would unite me with the democrats.
I can barely stomache the republicans.
Is it called #1 or #2 what I need to do. Someone call my mommy!
Whenever he talks, I find myself concentrating on "it" instead of what he is saying which is probably why he doesn't have it removed.
Good point. Have you noticed how Kerry slips his tongue out in between pauses? That creeps me out too.
Like a snake or lizard checking for prey?
He knows the docs will take that thing on his lips off, but also knows his wife won't be happy with just lips sewn on to the end of his neck.
There are DUmmies that actually believe this rot.
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