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

[Werner]

This is a big issue for me. When Bill Clinton came into office the top 1% of income got 13.8% of all income and when he left office it was 20.8%. It's now about 25%. This massive redistribution is not what America should be about.

[degjack]

Edwards' the ONE!

Mark my words.

He sets the pace, takes the risks, states the truth...

Everybody else jumps on board.

Edwards' THE ONE!!

[degjack]

Peggy Noonan??? Why would anybody take seriously anything this hack said, including anything about John Edwards' hair.

Why not pay attention to what John Edwards' says????

[Emmagoldmanbabe]

The more I learn about Mr. Edwards, the more I like him. I think that he's consistantly shown that he has a real backbone. He speaks truth to power about poverty and hunger in the US.

I just wish that he embraced equal marraige....

[lawguy]

Hey -- thanks Marc for perpetuating the 'Edwards the radical' meme for the Republicans and Hillary/Obama. Oh my, it is so crazy-radical to suggest that corporations have undue influence in this country. What could Edwards possibly be thinking?

[robertlockwoodmills]

Does anyone listen to Peggy Noonan any more? Isn't she from the same era as Nancy Dickerson and Phyllis Schafly?

[Chandidevi]

Thank you, John Edwards, for staying on message, and for your immense courage. Thank you! It's wonderful to see you highlighted on HuffPost - for a change.

[hopeless277]

Big money will win. Big money ALWAYS wins. Thanks, John for trying. We(anyone who makes less that $500K a year) are enslaved to corporate America. It will only get worse because.....big money always wins. Sorry.

[kdjoins]

corporations are what make this country great and what have delivered the standard of living that we enjoy in the US. this paranoid anti-corporate babble is nonsense.

[earling]

Lest everyone forget, Edwards was the only one to have the totally grounded and reality based notion to boycott FOX and refuse to debate on that network. Is that not ballsy? Am I missing something? Didn't seem to occur to anybody else, and suddenly Hillary and Obama BOTH had the same idea, about a week later. Hmm. So he's not an influence? That, alone, is enough to earn my fealty. He may be stinking rich, but nobody gave it to him. He may live in a palace, but so what --since when is gross materialism a disqualifier in THIS country? The ugly truth is, without bucks like he has, he'd never be in the race. From one perspective -- that of the average working american -- discussing corporate greed is about as radical as wincing when you fill up your gas tank. But in some sense, the HuffPo headline is correct: for a guy with the kind of deep pockets Edwards has, being able to actually observe an alternate reality (that of average people) and assimilate it's message, is, in this day and age, in politics especially, somewhat radical. And, come to think of it, exactly what we're missing in our current Whitehouse Fool.

[metropolitan]

uh, that's a rather incendiary headline for an article that says nothing new and certainly not a radicalization of his message of the past few months. huffpo's own reporting is crap. it was better when it was just links to outside sources.

[caywen]

BTW, I look at my paycheck from the company where I work. I see nothing but GREED!!

So, I pay my bills and rent using GREED. Today, I bought my lunch using 6.57 units of GREED.

And every year, both the company and myself pay lots of GREED back to the government.

[ImpeachmentNOW]

.
If Edwards truly wants to help the citizen workers of America he MUST abandon one of the Democrat's scared cows - PROTECTING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS.

The engine that drives illegal immigration - jobs - must be shut down. The benefits to American citizens from stopping the employment of illegals immigrants have been very well documented and include:

1. Wages for American citizens will increase, and jobs for citizens - at higher than illegals wages - will open up.
2. The money provided to legal citizens in wages will be spent and invested in America - not sent to mexico - thus enhancing the economic vitality of the nation.
3. Costs to educate and provide hospital services to illegals will decrease.
4. Our overburden jails will get some breathing room - and operating costs will decrease due to fewer inmates.
5. The 2007 Heritage Foundation study by Robert Rector showed that the average cost in government services is about $32,000 per household of illegals. This money could be used in services for legal citizens if the illegals were displaced from our country.

But Edwards is a hypocrite, like the rest of the Dem mob. He's looking forward to the illegals -using their stolen and/or forged documnets - voting for a Democrat in the next election.
.

[OhPlease2007]

Corporations, not paying retirement benefits, not allowing workers to work more hours to keep workers from having benefits, cooking the books and stealing net worth of employee stock holder's portfolios, firing workers for trying to unionize for better worker rights, cutting American jobs while upper level executives give themselves massive pay raises, unjustified multi-million dollar golden parachutes?;now THAT's RADICAL! These are just a few of the things that lobbyists are working hard to keep by lobbying politicians in Washington D.C..

The way I see it, John Edwards is not against corporations; Edwards is against the 'un-fair practices' of corporations. The only way to end these un-fair corporate practices is to rid the federal government of their massive corporate lobbyist influence over Washington D.C. politicians.

The only way America is going to be able to restore the American dream is to put unfair corporate practices in check. And in my opinion, John Edwards is fighting to do just that.

My vote is going to John Edwards, the candidate that doesn't have advisers from past administrations, who will show up every day to work to fight for honest change.

[solarenergy]

There have been five populist / progressive eras in U.S. history (ok, ok, someone might want to argue exactly how many), here they are:

1. The American Revolution that led to the Constitution
2. Andrew Jackson
3. The Civil War, in which one side fought against the enslavement of an entire race of people
4. Teddy Roosevelt
5. FDE and the New Deal

It is time again for a populist / progressive movement to re-take control of this country by the people, for the people and of the people.

I believe JE wants to lead that movement. He has fought corporations his entire career. He knows how to do it.

Go John Go!