Edwards Radicalizes Anti-Corporate Pitch

Dubuque, Iowa - Amid a heavy snow storm Friday afternoon, an overflow crowd of several hundred supporters bundled into a meeting hall in this economically battered town to hear candidate John Edwards escalate his closing campaign message of opposing "corporate greed" and denounce what he called a "small group of profiteers" dominating American life.

"Everything about America is threatened today...this is an epic struggle for the future of America," Edwards told the cheering crowd. "Corporate greed and the very powerful use their money to control Washington and this corrupting influence is destroying the middle class."

While all of the presidential campaigns have refocused to some degree on foreign policy in the wake of the murder of Pakistani leader Benazir Bhutto, Edwards is keeping his message of economic fairness front and center during the final week of campaigning here. "We will defeat greed and fear - and strike a blow for working people, for those with no voice, for those Washington has ignored too long." Edwards made no mention of the Pakistani crisis in his newly re-tooled stump speech.

While Edwards has consistently campaigned on an economically populist program, his speech today in Dubuque was marked by a noticeable ratcheting up and radicalization of his critique of corporate wealth and power.

"Why on earth would we expect the corporate powers and their lobbyists, who make billions by selling out the middle-class, to just give up their power because we ask them nicely?" Edwards asked. He made no mention of rivals Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton in today's speech; in the past, he has slammed Clinton for being too indebted to powerful Washington lobbies.

Edwards is in the midst of a final 38-county push to win next Thursday's Iowa caucuses. Even his own supporters will concede that taking Iowa is a do-or-die must for a campaign running third in national polls, but in a virtual dead heat in the Hawkeye State with rivals Clinton and Obama.

Nestled on the gritty Illinois border, Dubuque has been hit hard by the collapse in American manufacturing jobs and offers itself as a perfect venue for Edwards' message of economic fairness. The local Flexsteel plant has lost about two-thirds of its 800 jobs over the past decade. Paper maker Georgia Pacific, another big employer in town, has also been hit hard by job exports.

"Iowa has lost twice as many jobs to unfair trade deals than it's won in the so-called technological revolution," Edwards adviser Dave "Mudcat" Saunders told the HuffPost before today's event started. "What kind of revolution is that?" Saunders said Edwards would stay on his message of opposing "unchecked greed" and that it was a theme that resonated deeply throughout the state.

Check out the rest of HuffPost's Iowa coverage.

Comments

[HumeSkeptic]

Benito Mussolini once said, "Fascism should rightly be called corporatism as it is a merger of state and corporate power”.

What we have today is corporations with more influence on our government than the voting public.

It is not quite fascism yet, but unless we stop the trend, we are getting there.

Unless we stand up against this trend, we would be to blame for the outcome.

Edwards is courageously standing up to these corporations. It is our duty to support him.

Edwards is not my #1 candidate. But, on this issue, he deserves our praise, admiration, and whole-hearted support.

Increasing corporatism is the root of many huge problems we face - from healthcare to wars.

[lvogt]

Amen Mr Edwards

[rixhex56]

GO, JOHNNY, GO!

There's a pulse throughout this land that is crying to hear exactly this kind of talk -- this is just about the best there is of totally exposing that pulse, and the need for reigning in corporations.

[RedRooster]

America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.

~ Oscar Wilde

[KRANKY]

There is a MASS Murderer living in OUR White House.
Either Americans will act responsibly and patriotically remove our Fascists as expeditiously as per Quisling and Mussolini, or we will live in shame or servitude.

Perhaps rust, moth, apathy and rot are the legacy of cowards and ne'er do wells.
If so, all of you timid materialists deserve your dictatorship.

[RedRooster]

The increase in incomes of the top 1 percent of Americans from 2003 to 2005 exceeded the total income of the poorest 20 percent of Americans, data in a new report by the Congressional Budget Office shows.

Source: New York Times
Date: December 15, 2007

[ceasenake]

Two reasons why the Dems would be foolish to nominate Edwards.

Edwards voted to go to war.

Edwards wouldn't even carry his own home state in a general election.

[texanna]

I am curious about the overheated rhetoric used in this piece - "ratcheting up" and "radicalization" - while the quotes in the piece are things I've heard him say in more than one interview. So, what is to explain this perspective -- has the poster never listened to Mr. Edwards before or is the poster's threshold for passionate belief in just ideas low? After reading the quotes attributed to Mr. Edwards in the piece, I am in full agreement -- we face an epic struggle to wrest control of our country from the clutches of those that would use it up and toss it aside for the next big marketing opportunity.

[jasjohn128]

This is why I'm gonna vote for John Edwards in the primary and - I hope - for President in November.

America needs a fighter now, not a charmer, not somone who's gonna look for "common ground" with Republicans, or who's gonna put a perfumed hanky up to his nose and plead for "dialog" (yecchhh) with bought-and-paid-for Republicans.

We need to elect someone who knows how to stand up and fight back against the power, and for me, that's John Edwards.

My country is in a mess. And I am absolutely sick and tired of the sissification of the Democratic party, of all this mealy-mouthed whining we keep hearing about "common ground" and "dialogue", as if the Republicans and their employers gave two shits about our informed concepts of representative democracy, national policy, or (God help us) that commie, radical abstraction we used to call "the common good".

I trust John Edwards to put a team together (perhaps including Obama, Kucinich, etc.) that'd run the Executive branch honorably and advocate on *our* behalf for a change, instead of just the filthy rich who think America's wealth is rightfully *theirs* and should continue to be transferred to them.

[boaz16]

Huffpo is getting desperate. This article contains no evidence of any escalation in Edwards's campaign theme and faults him for neglect of the Pakistan issue- ignoring the thread of Bhutto remarks throughout his speeches yesterday, including a conversation with Musharraf urging Mr. M to continue with elections.

It's in pattern with posting PEGGY NOONAN'S wall street hit job on Edwards's hair, and posting scurrilous headlines above Sam Stein's piece on the SEIU ads, which turned out to be about as uncontroversial as ads get, which even Stein noted. Not nearly as bad as connecting users to the National Enquirer smears, but close.

With all of this crap about Edwards's "coordinating" with the SEIU, and not being able to control former advisers (why can't he get Baldick to stop the SEIU? Why, for that matter, can't he get Axelrod to fold Obama's campaign? The guy obviously just has no control), it's galling to see a website I once considered a progressive meetingplace of ideas morph into a thinly veiled campaign website for Sen. Obama.

[Marsangusidaho]

I'm one of Edwards's supporters who does not "concede" that he has to win Iowa in order to move forward. That sort of unattributed blanket statement of "fact" by Mr. Cooper is the kind of coverage that makes it so hard for "many people" to rely on "political journalists" to really give any sort of fair sense of what's going on.
On the contrary, given that John Edwards has been polling third or farther back for the entire year, a second-place finish or even a very close third would be a victory that could propel him into contention in the next few states.

[Leaftones]

It's not radical it's reality - guess we know where Huff post's loyalties lies...a very tawdry and dishonest headline.

[SmellyOne]

This is socialist crap.

If you want to get rid of the lobbyists and gov't corruption, why not educate the public?

Why do so many want to destroy in order to bring fairness?

Don't legislate against greed, expose it.

Use Freedom of Speech to keep watch on the Free Markets.

You people who want the gov't to take over corporations and industry can go suck an egg. It's anti-American.

What makes anyone think that the system will be LESS corrupt if the gov't is MORE involved?

Wake Up!!!

[Zhonni]

I am not supporting Edwards in the primary but if he should somehow win the nomination, he would have to eat a lot of his words if he wants to win.

It will be hard to win if he is perceived as anti-corporation instead of pro middle class.

[carefulcautious]

It is way past time to nationalize all industry in this nation. Edwards will do that, which is why I support him.

Edwards/Obama 08!