Times Editorial Board Roundtable:

John Edwards: Less glitz and glamour; more ideas

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By The Quad-City Times | Sunday, April 8, 2007 12:02 AM CDT | () comments

Photos by Kevin Schmidt/Quad-City Times

Four years ago, John Edwards criss-crossed Iowa as the new face with the winning smile, fresh ideas and the state’s first glimpse of audacious hope. This week, he returned for his fourth visit with the Quad-City Times editorial board. He brought the famous smile, more ideas and hope. His 2008 strategy also comes with plans, specific ones he’ll outline eagerly and thoroughly.

And, for the Times editorial board, succinctly.

“Elizabeth said I talked too much,” he said, describing his wife’s assessment of a New Hampshire event last week. She joined him for much of Wednesday’s 90-minute interview, participating in the conversation when we asked about the campaign and family, and listening as he delved into the detailed plans he hopes will differentiate him from the rest of the Democratic field. His Middle East plans dominated the conversation.

He’s clear on his call for a quick reduction — but not elimination — of troops in Iraq, not as abdication or surrender, but for what he believes will be a more successful peace initiative. “I think they have it backwards” at the White House, he said. Edwards believes fewer, not more troops, will force Shia and Sunni elements in the region to feel more, not less, pressure to help reconciliation in Iraq.

“You have to look at it from their perspective,” he said. He believes leadership in Iran is shaky, suggesting that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may have an interest in helping stabilize Iraq if faced with the possibility of being overrun by millions of Iraqis fleeing a civil war.

He’s clear that the region, not just Iraq, needs an American troop presence for the foreseeable future in Kuwait and the Persian Gulf. And he would launch immediate, ongoing negotiations with every Middle East player, including Iran.

Then he pulls a classic Edwards and drops in an audacious idea: A new American initiative to establish worldwide public, elementary education. The absence of formal education creates a void eagerly filled by radical jihadists.

Instead, fill that void with schools and teachers who would leave a better impression of America than guns and rockets.

“What America has to do is shift in a way that makes America a force for good again,” he said, emphasizing that the world view of America is as a “bully.”

“They say we’re selfish and a bully country only interested in expanding our own power. We have to do some things that make us appear unselfish.”

Edwards says America can not withdraw from world leadership because of the errors made in Iraq. “One of the fears I have about my own party is the reaction to the war is to disengage.” That, he said, would be “a fatal mistake.”

“If America is not leading, there is no stabilizing force.”

Edwards talked about his recent trips to Israel and China, underscoring credentials and experience the 2004 version of Edwards had not developed.

“I am the candidate of specific, bold ideas and I don’t think this contest will be decided by glitz and glamour. I think caucus voters can get past that.”

Watch Edwards take the Quad-City Times Iowa Caucus quiz.

Edwards on...

Southern strategy

“George Bush is the most powerful southern candidate in my lifetime. Especially the religious right turns out for him in ways I’ve never seen, including Ronald Reagan. ... Mayor Giuliani is from New York City. Gov. Romney is from Boston. Sen. McCain is from Arizona. There is no southerner, no even hint of being southerner. ... I absolutely believe if I’m the Democratic candidate and one of them is the Republican candidate we will win the southern states.”

Democracy in the Middle East

“If a democratic election were held in Pakistan today, I’m not sure Americans would like the result. Democracy promotion, I wouldn’t make it the end-all issue.”

Presidential caliber

“Two things. Do they have specific, substantial ideas to support their vision and can they articulate that vision in a way the voters understand? Second, do they have the personal characteristics to be president? Are they honest? Are they strong? Do they have integrity? I think the vision without the latter does not qualify them to be president.”

Health care

“My view about health savings accounts the way they’ve been proposed by the Bush administration is they are just tax breaks for rich people.

“The health insurers are not going to like my plan, but they’re not going to hate it. One of the most important things it does is bring down costs for everybody and fill in the cracks with health parity, preventative care and long-term care.”

Nuclear energy

“I used to think years ago, Yucca Mountain might be an alternative and I no longer believe that. I think the science has become increasingly strong that it doesn’t make sense for a lot of reasons. ... Until and if we come up with safe way to store nuclear waste for a long period of time, I would not be in favor of building additional nuclear power plants.”

Personal fitness

“I used to run outside, but I don’t anymore because I get stopped. I tried to run in Washington two days ago and it was a joke. I got stopped every 15 minutes. I’m a politician. When people want to talk to me, I stop. So now I run on a treadmill.”

Flashback to 2004

In an Oct. 21, 2004 interview with the Times editorial board, John Edwards was asked what a Kerry/Edwards administration could do to keep Iraq from becoming another Vietnam.

Edwards: “Here's what I think needs to happen, and I want to emphasize in the beginning that things have to be done together. No one of these things alone will solve the problems that we have in Iraq.

“The training of the Iraqis. Now I know the vice president and president claim they are doing what needs to be done in this regard. They're not. This is a matter of follow-through and implementation.

“ ...Second, we've got to speed up the reconstruction process. They have spent roughly a billion dollars of the 18 billion dollars that's been allocated for reconstruction.

“This is the area, by the way, that Richard Lugar, a Republican leader in the Senate, said the only excuse for that is incompetence.”