( – promoted by buhdydharma )
John and Elizabeth Edwards may not be on the 2008 presidential campaign anymore, but they are on a different campaign: making connections between the costs of the Iraq war and our weak economy.
Elizabeth Edwards, who is good about making constructive criticism of the media, observed that reporters
“certainly don’t cover the connection between the issues,” she said the American people see there is “undoubtedly a connection between oil, the costs of transportation in this country, and this war.”
(source: Will Thomas, HuffPo)
Thus, a new cause to spotlight, and the Edwardses are back fighting for the American people.
More under the fold…
Via a conference call today with John and Elizabeth Edwards, it was announced that they were joining a coalition of 4 political action groups: the political arm of the SEIU, VoteVets, Moveon, and the Center for American Progress to launch a 20 million dollar initiative on bringing attention to the economic problems of the Iraq war and how it affects the American pocketbook.
The target: Republicans in vulnerable seats in the Senate and Congress who still continue to supply blank checks to fund the Iraq war and refuse to listen to Americans who are hurting financially that the government needs to be paying attention to their woes.
According to News-Observer‘s Rob Christensen, who was on the conference call at 11 EST today, Edwards was motivated to launch this cause as he said:
“People don’t understand why we’re spending $500 billion and counting in Iraq at the same time that we’ve got, you know, 40-plus million Americans who don’t have any health-care coverage, 37 million living in poverty, people terrified about being able to pay their bills,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense to them, and they see no end in sight.”
Jude Nagurney Camwell, who was also on the conference call along with John Podesta, CEO of the Center for American Progress, Eli Pariser, executive director of MoveOn.org; Brad Woodhouse, president of Americans United for Change, Jon Soltz of VoteVets.org, reported that Podesta talked the failing dollar, oil crude prices at over $100 a barrel, huge deficits, and the massive selling of treasuries (IOU’s) to support a failing war and lack of care for our veterans when they return. The vast amounts of spending money the US does not have makes the voters uneasy.
MSNBC’s Dominico Montanaro said Elizabeth Edwards wanted to express to General Election voters that if the economy is number one, the war in Iraq should also be number one.
VoteVets rolled out this video, aimed at Senator McCain:
“A thousand years in war when we could have health care?” asks the young mother. This clip will run as an ad in the cable stations in the DC area.
The same MSNBC report cited John Soltz, head of VoteVets.org, said that they will target Sen. McCain between now and November and added:
“We’re not going to disparage his service…. He served with honor, but when it comes to his policy on Iraq, he is no different than George W. Bush.”
John and Elizabeth Edwards are leading the way again. And they would probably ask you to take action via Moveon.org’s LTTE site here.
All one has to do is type in zip code, then select the radio buttons for the various media in your area, fill out a template, and your name and address for the paper since they require it. Moveon also provides talking points to use in your LTTE.
Oh, in case one is wondering, no endorsements for the candidates at this time. Just endorsements in general to elect more progressives who will push to get our troops home and to start making more domestic investments to support the American people.
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in the right place. I am so proud that they are stepping forward again to highlight the important issues that affect the American people.
The costs of the war are enormous and are draining resources that could be used much more productively in this country. This is a very much needed campaign that I hope will clearly set the agenda for the election. It is a progressive view.
Thanks for the diary showing that the Edwardses are still fighting for us all.
We need to fight the war.
I am glad that John and Elizabeth Edwards are spearheading this important effort.
The Edwardses are right back leading on the issues again, with only a very short break after the campaign. They really are all about bringing the changes we need. It’s nice to see.
The work continues and there is much more to do.
It is really good to hear of the Edwards continuing in working toward causes important to us all.
Thanks for you diary.
We could accomplish a great deal as a country for the 10 billion a month we are wasting in Iraq.
This is the way to hammer McCain.
and speaking out in their common sense and frank way on our problems.
With their voices, not only will the current silliness of the Dem campaign be put into perspective, but we can prevent McCain from framing Iraq and the economy in some nonsense fashion. Once McCain has defined the discussion, it will be harder to get it back to sanity. The Edwardses and MoveOn are doing that now before it is too late.
campaign called on the Congress to stop funding this war, to support the troops by bringing them home. He continues to make the connections necessary for the American people to see the true costs of this endless war by Bush now and McCain later.
As you said, he said he wasn’t going away, that ending the campaign didn’t mean he would not still fight for all Americans. Here he and Elizabeth are, doing what they do best, being clear and straightforward about what is wrong and what we need to do together to change it.
It’s amazing how the media and the candidates fail to make the connection between the sinking economy and the trillion dollar war.
Too bad we have to spend 20 million dollars to state the obvious, but that’s the situation.
Good on the Edwardses.
About 20 years ago, NYC teachers were blamed for local crime. Supposedly, we didn’t teach “values.” Now I guess to keep the curriculum value oriented, we won’t be allowed to teach the children about our own government. Lying to get into a war–using money for death instead of for health–and ignoring NOLA–all to make more money for the rich.
As the economy tanks, crime will go up. Don’t blame the teachers, blame Bush, Cheney, Pelosi, Reid.
Will nobody address the elephant in the room
http://video.google.de/videopl…
Author
For FP my diary, which entails a new progressive action item.
I am honored to have my diary bumped, and I appreciate your blog recognizes that along with others, we wish to speak about the progressive agenda we seek and want in our country.
I also prefer discussing issues (and good news about JRE and EE who didn’t wait long to get up and fight for us), in a coalition of other progressive organizations.
We need UHC, we need to get out of the war in Iraq, and the dots do connect.
Benny
Nice job. Thought it was time I commented over here, you are my first.
from the rest of our current discourse. Class.
I am so happy to see them back in action. It is amazing how much I have missed them in just this few weeks.
It is wonderful noticing this a.m. that beautiful people continue to do beautiful things, sometimes even repeatedly.