Edwards, The Left and Poverty
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Elections, General Politics, Social ProgramsDavid Yepsen of the Des Moines Register takes a look at some tough decisions Edwards is going to face in his bid to win Iowa in 2008.
Found via Political Wire:
The dilemma facing him is this: Can he stand up to Democratic constituency groups and tell them things they may not want to hear about fighting poverty while still courting them in another bid for the White House?
It could be difficult. If he speaks bluntly about how some anti-poverty efforts haven’t worked, about how new approaches are needed or how poor people need to take more responsibility for their own conditions and actions, he could alienate the very left-of-center groups he needs to win a Democratic presidential nomination.
But if he just panders to them – as he was largely doing in a luncheon speech to the Iowa Coalition for Housing and the Homeless in Des Moines on Tuesday – then we can dismiss his center’s work as just another effort to keep some politician in the limelight.
To me, this seems like a great opportunity to break away from the status quo and show some real centrist logic on a difficult issue. Leadership is about new ideas, and if Edwards can convince the Democrats that things need to change, he’ll be a front runner for the nomination.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 21st, 2005 and is filed under Elections, General Politics, Social Programs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
