Edwards receives warm welcome during Nashua campaign stop

[JohnLocke]

Candidate receives warm welcome during Nashua campaign stop
By Eileen Hynes--Nashua Telegraph
Sunday, July 29, 2007
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NASHUA – While thunderstorms passed overhead, there was a feeling of electricity among those packed into the home of Latha and Krishna Mangipudi on Saturday.

Fanning themselves with “John Edwards ’08” fliers, the perspiring crowd patiently waited for a visit from the democratic presidential candidate, one of 13 stops he and his wife, Elizabeth, were to make in New Hampshire this weekend.

Dressed in a traditional sari, Latha, along with her husband, Krishna, greeted guests and prepared for the former North Carolina senator. The Edwards campaign staff took shelter in the garage, registering 235 of the more than 250 people who showed up.

(...)

“When we’re trying to bring about change, when we’re standing up and fighting for the change this country needs so badly, the last thing we need are two Democratic presidential candidates fighting with each other instead of fighting for the change that we need,” he said, referring to recent sparring about foreign policy between Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. Edwards said he has positioned himself as the right candidate to bring “bold change” to the White House, and spoke for 15 minutes about his platform on health care, poverty, higher education, tackling big corporations and finally, Iraq.

“We need to get this country patriotic about something other than war,” Edwards said when addressing global warming.

He intends to create a national cap on carbon emissions and generate billions in revenue by auctioning off greenhouse pollution permits to businesses once the country is below the cap.

Then Edwards fielded questions from the crowd, which scrutinized his platform, as well as voiced their support for his ideas.

(...)

Sweta Vajjhala, 20, of Hudson asked how he was planning to fund his college credit plan to reduce tuition costs for higher education and if he would consider giving more funding to special education.

Edwards responded by saying to fund all his ideas, he would propose eliminating President Bush’s tax cuts, change the capital gains rate to 28 percent for those who make an annual salary of more than $250,000 and use a portion of the revenue generated from his environmental policy.

“I believe it’s more important to bring down the cost of health care than to have tax cuts for rich people,” he said. “I believe it’s more important to send our kids to college than to have more tax cuts for rich people.”

Vajjhala, a Georgia Tech junior who plans to register to vote this week, said she was pleased with his response on an issue that’s important to her.

The Mangipudis were offered an opportunity to host the senator in part by the U.S. Indian-American Political Action Committee, a bipartisan organization.

(...)

“Voters in New Hampshire have some very specific, hard questions about the big issues in most of the country, and it’s a very healthy thing,” Edwards said before heading off to his next engagement in Epping.

“I think voters ought to be tough when choosing the president of the United States. This is a test any presidential candidate should have to go through.”

http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070729/NEWS08/207290410/-1/news08

[blue neen]

1. It's great to see him getting such a warm reception in NH.

"People were jockeying for position and spilling into every room on the ground floor. A few from the overflow stood in the front yard to listen through the open windows. Everyone began craning their heads, and cameras were clicking as Edwards made his entrance at 1:30 p.m., just as the sun came out."

[JohnLocke]

2. Kick (nt).