Edwards, Democratic vice-presidential nominee, spoke to a packed house of friends, family and ardent supporters in his hometown of Raleigh. His parents, Wallace and Bobbie Edwards of Robbins, beamed from the front as their son spoke.
He took off the gloves.
“Iraq’s a mess,” he said. “Iraq’s a mess, because of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.”
The president cannot admit his mistakes, Edwards said, accusing Bush of going to war in Iraq with no plan for getting out afterwards.
“This president is incapable of admitting he’s wrong,” he said. “He was asked, and he could not think of a single mistake he’s made since he took office. I can think of 10 things I did wrong since I got out of bed this morning.”
Edwards, North Carolina’s senior senator, stood on a low, raised square platform surrounded on all sides by a sea of backers.
He attacked present trade policies that reward companies for shipping jobs overseas, called for a tobacco buyout to replace the current quota system, called for protection and strengthening of Medicare, and called for universal access to college.
Sided With Drug Companies
Edwards leveled some of his strongest criticism at the Bush administration’s position on health-related issues such as prescription drug cost, which he said is rising higher and higher.
Bush always sides with big companies and against average Americans, according to Edwards.
Many find out that they just cannot pay for medicines they need and have to take their prescription back when the pharmacist tells them what filling it will cost, he said.
“What’s George Bush done about it?” Edwards asked. “Made it worse. That’s what he’s done about it.”
The president had other choices, Edwards said.
“We could have allowed prescription drugs safely into this country from Canada,” he said. “Makes all the sense in the world, good for the American people, good for consumers — makes all the sense in the world.”
But some large drug companies opposed that plan, he said.
“George Bush had a choice,” Edwards said. “He could be with consumers. He could be with the American people, or he could be with the big drug companies and their profits. Who did he choose?”
The crowd responded that it was the drug companies.
“Oh, yes he did,” said Edwards as the crowd answered.
The government could have held down drug costs by negotiating lower prices as has been done for years by the Veterans’ Administration, but chose not to do so, he said.
“John McCain and I and others wrote the patients’ bill of rights in the United States Senate — fought to get it passed, did get it passed,” he said. “George Bush had a choice. He could be with you and patients … or he could be with big insurance companies who were against it. They were against it. Who did he choose?”
Insurance, the crowd responded almost liturgically.
“Oh, yes he did,” said Edwards again. “I am telling you — over and over and over — this president and Dick Cheney have had clear choices. Over and over, they have showed who they are with. They are not with you. They will never be with you.”
Iraq War Questioned
Edwards spoke ad lib to the crowd for most of an hour before taking questions from the floor.
Tom Hinkle of Chapel Hill, one of the veterans for Kerry/Edwards, cited the original resolution authorizing the use of force in Iraq that both Kerry and Edwards voted for. He said he downloaded it from the Internet.
“It is very clear to me that George Bush had to pass two levels before he was authorized to use force,” Hinkle said. “Those levels are that al Quaeda was aided by Iraq in the 9/11 attack and also that further diplomatic and peaceful means would not relieve the threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction … ”
Those requirements were not met, Hinkle said, citing a statement by Secretary of State Colin Powell that prior to the attack there was no evidence that Saddam Hussein aided al Quaeda on 9/11.”
Referring to the report of the 9/11 commission report, Edwards restated the finding that Iraq was not involved.
“Unfortunately, the president and vice president believe that if you repeat something often enough it becomes true,” Edwards said. “There is no connection between Saddam and the 9/11 attack. The truth is, this president was unwilling to do the hard work. It is not easy to build a coalition, get others to join you in the effort.”
The first Gulf war cost taxpayers $5 billion.
More than the entire cost of that war — $7 billion — has now been paid under no-bid contracts to Halliburton, Cheney’s former company, according to Edwards.
“We are at $200 billion and counting, right now,” he said. “There are parts of Iraq that are clearly in control of insurgents, particularly in central Iraq and the Sunni triangle. We have foreign fighters coming across the Syrian border. It is a very, very dangerous situation and a dangerous place, as I know everybody here already knows.”
Going it alone, driving others away, is not the sign of strength as the administration thinks it is, he said.
“They are dead wrong,” he said. “When you are doing things alone, you are not leading anybody.”
Fighting for Children, Families
Responding to a question about coming TV ads that will accuse him of putting doctors out of work when he was a trial lawyer, Edwards said he was fighting for people like the ones who live in Robbins.
“I have spent most of my life before I went to the Senate fighting for kids and families against big insurance companies, against big drug companies,” he said. “They are the same kind of people I grew up with in that small town in North Carolina where my parents raised me. I am proud of who I fought for. I had a choice.
“This president and this vice president have always been on the other side. They’ve been with the drug companies. They’ve been with the insurance companies. I am proud of who I fought for. I always fight for the same people, always fight for the same people.”
The present administration does not have a health-care plan, Edwards said.
“Their plan is, ‘Don’t get sick,’” he said. “What George Bush and Dick Cheney want to do is take away the rights of a child that has been paralyzed for life. They want to take away the rights of a stay-at-home mom. They want to take away the rights of a senior. Those are the people I have been fighting for all my life, always am going to fight for.”
He promised a Greensboro firefighter to fight for unions.
“Here is my mother sitting right here,” he said, pointing to Bobbie Edwards. “She is a retired member of the letter carriers, and she and my father have health care today because of the union. My brother, my only brother whom I love dearly — he and his family have health care today because of the union. The truth of the matter is, we need more and stronger voices for working people, not weaker voices, for people like my mother, like my brother.”
Bush and Cheney can never understand, he said.
“They don’t have a clue,” he said. “They don’t have any idea what is going on in the life of people. If they did, they wouldn’t put in a rule that takes overtime pay away from millions of Americans.”
That rule will change on the first day of a Kerry administration, Edwards promised.
Former Gov. Jim Hunt introduced Edwards following a “welcome home” from Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker.
The state is clearly considered to be “in play” by both parties. Over the past two weeks, Bush and Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry made campaign appearances in North Carolina.
Edwards’ wife, Elizabeth, visited military families and conducted a town hall meeting on health care. In western North Carolina, she and her husband visited areas hard hit by recent storms and the worst flooding to survey the damage.
Kerry’s choice of Edwards as running mate has made many North Carolina Democrats hopeful of carrying the state this time.
Recent polls have shown Bush with a slight lead over Kerry in North Carolina, but the numbers are well within any margin of error.
Many at Monday’s rally said the coming series of debates is crucial to this election.
“North Carolina will respond to the national campaign,” said Morgan Jackson. “We can take this state.”
Jackson, from Carthage, is statewide director of the Kerry/Edwards 2004 campaign.
The last Democratic presidential candidate to win North Carolina was Jimmy Carter in 1976.
