LEBANON -- Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards highlighted his plans to improve America's "bully" reputation in the world, to fight poverty and to reform the national health care system at a town meeting held in Colburn Park Monday night.
At the beginning of his remarks to the crowd of approximately 200, Edwards identified what he believes to be the most important issue of the 2008 presidential campaign.
"The next elected president must answer this question: How do we re-establish America as a force of good in the world?" Edwards said.
Edwards said that he would act to improve America's standing in the eyes of the global community.
"I have spent a lot of time overseas recently, and the world thinks we are a bully," Edwards said, arguing that it is now necessary for the United States to redirect its influence from war in Iraq to other areas in order to regain respect around the world.
"We are going to have to demonstrate our commitment to humanity, which means that we are going to have to do some unpopular political things," he said.
Edwards cited the crisis in Darfur as an example of a tragedy that the United States has ignored.
"We see a genocide happening and we do nothing -- what do other countries think?" he asked.
Edwards said that, if elected, he would not put United States troops in Sudan, but would instead use America's influence by imposing economic sanctions on the Sudanese government until it accepted the presence of a United Nations security force.
Edwards also stressed the need to combat the negative effects of poverty, both in the United States and in the world. He promised that he would earmark the entirety of the budget currently being spent on fighting in Iraq to provide a primary school education to children in Third World countries.
"There's an entire new generation of kids in the Muslim world sitting on the fence. On one side are the terrorist recruiters and on the other side is us, and the rest of the world. We have to reach out to these kids and give them a chance in the world," Edwards said.
To deal with poverty in the United States, Edwards said that he would raise the minimum wage to a "living wage," expand the income tax credit and make it easier to organize unions. He also emphasized his plan to provide a government-funded college education to all eligible students in the United States. He cited the success of a program he implemented in eastern North Carolina, in which students contributed wages from working 10 hours a week to the cost of tuition, and the government paid the difference.
Edwards also identified reform of the health care system as a key issue, noting that he was the only candidate, Democratic or Republican, to present a specific plan. This plan would mandate that employers provide health care for all of their employees and their family members. Recipients would be free to choose either a private plan or Medicare Plus. Premiums would be subsidized. Edwards proposed reversing President Bush's tax cuts to finance the plan.
Edwards referenced his political experience as a former senator from North Carolina, as well as his recent work in an executive position. He has most recently served as the director of the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law. Though Edwards was well received by rally attendees, eliciting a standing ovation at the conclusion of his remarks, his national campaign has yet to gain widespread support. In the most recent Gallup poll on candidates for the Democratic nomination, Edwards lags significantly behind front-runners Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. The latest numbers also place Edwards just behind former vice-president Al Gore, who is not an official candidate in the 2008 race for president.
