AP: Edwards nixes campaign stops for speech on poverty [View All]

[KillCapitalism]

Source: Associated Press

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards canceled campaign events in Alabama and North Dakota to make a "major policy address on poverty" Wednesday in New Orleans, where he launched his presidential bid 13 months ago.

Campaign officials said Edwards, who has trailed Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama in recent primaries, does not plan to end his candidacy and will reschedule the two dropped trips. Nonetheless, people close to the campaign said Tuesday's announcement caught them off guard, and some found it perplexing.

In a news release, the Edwards campaign called poverty "the great moral issue of our time." In recent days, it said, "national discussion of important issues like ending poverty has given way to sniping and personal attacks between the two front-runner candidates. Ending poverty and fighting for the middle class is the cause of John Edwards' life — and he will urge the nation to refocus on this important issue."

Democratic activists have openly speculated that the former North Carolina senator may have to leave the race soon because he has been unable to keep pace with Obama and Clinton in gaining votes, media attention and fundraising. After narrowly edging Clinton for second place in the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses, Edwards has fared poorly. On Saturday, he finished a distant third in his native South Carolina, whose primary he won in 2004.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080129/ap_on_el_pr/edwards

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I still can't get why Edwards is not getting more support. Poverty is one of the biggest issues we face, and we need a candidate like him to help end it once and for all. This is a case of Democrats not voting in their own best interests.