"Dick Cheney," she {Elizabeth Edwards} deadpanned, "is our president."

[Sapphire Blue]

Going Public, With No Regrets
Elizabeth Edwards isn't afraid to speak her mind. Not everyone's comfortable with it
By Liz Halloran
Posted 7/29/07


Elizabeth Edwards at a farmers' market in Des Moines(Jim Lo Scalzo for USN&WR)

DES MOINES—Elizabeth Edwards looked out from the dais in the Holiday Inn ballroom in late July and warned breakfasting union members that she had bad news.

"Dick Cheney," she deadpanned, "is our president." After a stunned pause, the crowd guffawed when Edwards reminded them that Cheney's term would last only as long as President Bush's morning colonoscopy.

It was a good line, immediate and political, and it did exactly what Edwards wanted to do with this audience: Moved it beyond curiosity and concern about her battle with cancer to her husband's quest for the White House. For the next hour, the refreshingly unscripted wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards deftly fielded questions on issues from Iraq to healthcare and not one about her diagnosis. She has held other events for more personal, emotional conversations, including a series of house parties for women. But today she was master of the North American Free Trade Agreement and the gross domestic product.

Elizabeth Edwards, 58, the Florida-born daughter of a Navy pilot, has emerged as her husband's most potent campaigner and front-line surrogate. She has taken on Democratic front-runner Sen. Hillary Clinton and conservative pundit Ann Coulter and starred solo in her husband's first ad in New Hampshire. She has become such a compelling figure that her husband's campaign strategists have had to tamp down rising chatter that she's overshadowing the candidate. "People do find her credible, and they certainly find her interesting," says J. Ann Selzer, who conducts the Des Moines Register Iowa poll, which in May showed Edwards leading in the state. A poll last week by Research 2000 had him with a 5-point lead over Clinton.

(snip)

Edwards campaign strategist Joe Trippi says Elizabeth Edwards disdains talking points, weighs in on decisions, and makes some of her own, such as calling in to confront Coulter on live television about attacks on her husband. Trippi says he knew she planned to call but not what she intended to say. "I was sitting on the edge of my seat just like the rest of America," he says. Skeptics find that scenario implausible. The "suggestion that this wasn't greenlighted or calculated by the campaign is laughable," Jonah Goldberg wrote in the National Review online. The campaign turned the contretemps into a fundraising boon. The campaign was also criticized earlier this year for soliciting contributions from visitors to the Edwards website, who were asked to E-mail good wishes to the couple after Elizabeth's cancer had returned.

Back in Iowa, Edwards has just about wrapped up a meeting with volunteers in Indianola. A half-dozen women lined up to have her sign her 2006 book, Saving Graces, and she talked about the year to come, a year filled with home-schooling the children on the campaign trail, uncertainty about her husband's prospects, and the unpredictability of her health. Elizabeth maintains it will be "a great year for our family." It's the kind of thing a brave woman would say.


http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/070729/6edwards_2.htm

Transformational Change For America And The World - JOHN EDWARDS for PRESIDENT 2008

:woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:
:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:
:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

A true revolution of values

"I'm proposing we set a national goal of eliminating poverty in the next 30 years." - JOHN EDWARDS 08

Building One America Starts in New Orleans - JOHN EDWARDS 08

Silence is Betrayal - JOHN EDWARDS 08

Moral Leadership - JOHN EDWARDS 08

Ending Poverty in America - edited by Senator John Edwards

[bananas]

1. k&r - thanks! nt

[pinto]

2. Yo, Mrs. Edwards! Good line.

:kick:

[benny05]

3. Kick

Half-decent article in the WaPO today too and FiredogLake featured John and Elizabeth's compassion for others.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/29/AR2007072901261.html?hpid=topnews

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/07/30/true-compassion/

Today is John and Elizabeth's 30th anniversary, BTW. They are renewing their vows and going to Wendy's.

[butterfly77]

4. At least someone isn't afraid to say it...

[Luke_R]

5. I love it!! (the comment)

[JNelson6563]

6. Elizabeth Edwards for President!

:toast: She rocks! :toast:

[baldguy]

7. I was just gonna say that!

[madokie]

8. Gotta love her

[Bluebear]

9. "Not everyone's comfortable with it" Of course not, she's a mouthy Democrat woman.

The people who 'aren't comfortable' with her speaking her mind don't mind a lick if Lynne Cheney is out on the stump making fun of her husband's political opponents. Hillary as First Lady and Teresa Kerry as potential First lady were far too opinionated, but Barbara Bush can go on at length with her rancid talk and be hailed as "America's grandmother". No, there is no double standard for the women of the two parties.

[mnhtnbb]

10. You can sense the fear with the putdown that Elizabeth might

just have made that call-in to Coulter without campaign strategist approval.

I truly believe that if Edwards can get the nomination, he can win, because
he's figured out that this campaign needs to be run without micro-managing
from strategists like that idiot Shrum.

[PATRICK]

11. Overall

It has been refreshing to see the typical Dem candidate's wife become a much more liberated influence on the campaign trail. All of them typically sacrifice so much that their own contributions and talents used to be overshadowed in the stricter gender divisions of old. This is especially interesting since one of the candidate spouses with so much to contribute is a man and one who used to be president. it is not a question of whether Bill overshadows Hillary but whether, strangely, that Elizabeth overshadows Bill.

In the awkward exchange- by rival spouses- over whether John or Hill was best for women's rights, the awkwardness was amusing and brilliant, to see the daring of a progressive challenger spelling out issues with the campaign muted indignane of Bill defending his wife's position, Ah, a truly more cynical and coldly calculating campaign could have had cruel fun at the Clinton's expense, but thankfully the equality of the spouses and their full, very talented contribution enriches and expresses true Dem values
in a modern age temporarily hijacked by skulking dinosaurs.

[Turn CO Blue]

12. She's right and is why they should impeach Cheney instead of Bush

Cheney is the sinister puppetmaster. Bush is nothing, does nothing, knows nothing, can barely string two words together. His brain has long been toast.

[Catchawave]

13. You go girl - Team Edwards !

What a team :loveya: