Edwards Says He's Anti-Poverty Candidate

[December 20, 2007]  PORTSMOUTH, N.H. (AP) -- Democrat John Edwards said Wednesday he's the presidential candidate who's made fighting poverty the cause of his life, trying to lay claim to the issue as the first voting of the 2008 campaign nears.

The nation's millions of poor people have not been a major focus of the campaign. But with Edwards, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama in a tight race in leadoff Iowa, the others don't want to let the former North Carolina senator have the issue by himself.

Earlier Wednesday, Clinton said in Iowa that people -- she didn't name anyone -- "talk about poverty in this campaign." But "we," she said, referring to husband Bill Clinton's presidency -- "lifted more people out of poverty during the 1990s than at any time in our history."

Edwards, on the second day of a brief swing through New Hampshire, said Clinton's remark was "a veiled reference to me, and he took issue with it.

"She said something about people talking about poverty, but you know, what are we going to do about it?" Edwards said to reporters. "Let me just be clear, ending poverty in this country is the cause of my life and I am completely committed to it."

"What I would ask Senator Clinton, and all the other candidates to do is to commit that we're going to raise the minimum wage to nine and a half dollars an hour, and have an index to go up on its own, and to come out with a comprehensive plan to end poverty, which I have already done."

Last month in Iowa, Obama offered a package of proposals aimed at halting growing income inequity, including an overhaul of bankruptcy laws and tax breaks to make college more affordable for the middle class. He has said he supports raising the minimum wage each year as the cost of living rises and has said repeatedly that people who have jobs should not be unable to make ends meet.

Clinton has said she will "restore the basic bargain that if Americans work hard and take responsibility, government will do its part to make sure they have the tools to get ahead." She also has said she will make sure that labor unions are strong. On Wednesday, Sen. Clinton announced that she has reintroduced legislation to link congressional pay raises to increases in the federal minimum wage. If enacted, that would mean the minimum wage would increase every time members of Congress receive a salary boost.

Edwards has said that, if elected, he would attack poverty by making it easier for unions to organize, creating temporary jobs for people who can't find work, expanding the federal Earned Income Tax Credit, adding 1 million new federally subsidized housing vouchers and creating universal kindergarten and preschool.

Edwards has been nearly alone among the candidates in making poverty a centerpiece of his platform and standard remarks, incorporating it into his populist "America Rising" message focused on helping the little guy by taking on corporations and special interests. Edwards always notes his personal journey from poor beginnings in North Carolina to super-rich trial lawyer and U.S. senator. He calls poverty a moral wrong the nation must right, and he staged an eight-stop poverty tour in July.

Clinton's reference on Wednesday to poverty was brief as well as low-key, seemingly as much in line with her efforts to establish her experience as to go after Edwards. However, the Clinton campaign is taking Edwards seriously here as polls show him still in a tight pack with Obama and her just two weeks before the Jan. 3 caucuses.

Edwards, with less money than the other two to spend on ads, was quick to jump on her comment, keeping his position in the daily campaign discussion.

Later in Dover, a voter challenged Edwards on his claim that he would deny members of Congress health insurance if they refuse to pass his universal health care plan.

"I'm not sure that's in your power," the voter said.

Edwards insisted it was, explaining that he would introduce legislation setting a six-month deadline for Congress to pass his plan or else face losing their own coverage. He said his power would rest in galvanizing the public to pressure Congress and that he'd travel to the home states of lawmakers who opposed his plan.

"If they're against it, then I'd go to their congressional districts as president and make sure their voters know they were voting for their health care and against the voters' health care," he said. "I guarantee you, you'll never see people move so fast."

[Associated Press; By JENNIFER LOVEN]

Associated Press Writer Holly Ramer in Dover, N.H., contributed to this report.

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