Free Republic

MONTHS ago, I observed on my blog that I think John Edwards is a phony — a make-believe Man of The People. It’s not so much that he’s lying when he says he wants to help One America — the Deserving Poor, whom he wants to vote for him — get what it has coming to it from the Other America (that of the Really Rich, to which he disarmingly admits he belongs). I think he believes it. But I don’t, and here’s why: Strike One: Sept. 16, 2003. The candidate was supposed to appear on a makeshift stage on...

As his Democratic rivals debate whether to talk with leaders of hostile nations, a tough-talking John Edwards told hundreds of people Saturday that he's against negotiating with the big insurance, oil and drug companies that he said are running the American government. Instead, he pushed for taking on "entrenched interests" with "big change." "Now, there are some people who believe ... the way to do this is to sit at the table with them and negotiate. I think that is a complete fantasy," he said, standing in front of the Rotary Arts Pavilion in a crowded Henry Law Park. Big...

(McClellanville) -- Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards says the 70 cents per hour increase in the minimum wage is not enough. The former North Carolina senator told reporters in McClellanville Wednesday he wants other presidential candidates to join him in calling for an increase in the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour by 2012. Tuesday's increase boosted the minimum wage to $5.85 per hour. Edwards made a similar call Monday night in the Democratic presidential debate in Charleston. He says all he heard was bragging about Congressional action.

Just when I thought I was about to lose my lunch over recent gushing reviews of John Edwards' anti-poverty agenda, first by The Economist and then by Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne, the ONION came to the rescue. "John Edwards Vows to End All Bad Things by 2011," America's self-described "finest news source" reported in its lead story. In an imaginary dispatch from Ames, Iowa, the ONION revealed the North Carolina presidential candidate is trying to jump-start his faltering campaign with "a promise to eliminate all unpleasant, disagreeable, or otherwise bad things from all aspects of American life by the...

As Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards ramps up his anti-poverty initiative this weekend, he will be confronting a deep popularity deficit among his party's poorest voters. In the most recent Washington Post-ABC poll, the former senator from North Carolina was trounced by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents with household incomes below $20,000. Clinton had the support of 55 percent, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) drew 20 percent and Edwards 10 percent. Meanwhile, a new poll focusing on political independents, conducted by The Post, the Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard University, shows this muted support among low-income...