While you were having your weekend, John Edwards was in Las Vegas being interviewed by Wolf Blitzer and Bill Maher, discussing Iraq, universal healthcare, and the bloggyrl flap, speaking with union workers, defending American auto jobs, and watching some hoops. Let me fill you in:
Edwards' appearance on The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer on CNN on Friday
NCDem has the video of Edwards and Wolf:
The highlights from the transcriptsof The Situation Room.
Edwards: I think what we ought to do, Wolf, is use the power to appropriate, to pass a law that says ... the president has to come to the Congress in order to raise the troop levels above where they are now and provide a cap on the troops of 100,000 once we make an initial draw down of 40 or 50 (thousand). So the bottom line is, simply that, what the Congress should be doing is using its power to appropriate, its constitutional authority, to require the president to start drawing down troops.
I think we need to continue to provide the support for the troops who are actually serving in Iraq. The Congress has the power to change what is happening right now.
... [What] we need to be doing is leaving Iraq. We need to be shifting responsibility to the Sunni leadership and the Shia leadership to reach some political reconciliation. And we need to be engaging Iran and Syria in the effort to help stabilize Iraq.
I think we ought to be withdrawing our troops in an orderly way over the course of the next year or so. I think that creates the greatest possibility of Iraq being stable and the greatest possibility of there actually being a political reconciliation. But I do believe we need to be leaving Iraq....
There's a threshold question, Wolf. The threshold question is: What is it that will create the best possibility of a political reconciliation between Maliki and the Shia-led government and the Sunni leadership? Because without that, there will continue to be violence, no matter what the troop level is in Iraq.
I believe very strongly that we should not be enabling their ongoing bad behavior. What we ought to be doing, instead, is shifting the responsibility to them to reach a political solution.... I think what we ought to be doing, we've got to be shifting this responsibility to them to reach a political solution, which is, I think, the only solution in Iraq.
I think in the short time he had, Edwards really gets to the heart of the problem in Iraq and makes it clear that there is no military solution.
Of course, this was part of the rollout of Edwards' Edwards' Comprehensive Plan for Iraq:
Edwards’ plan for Iraq calls for Congress to:
- Cap funding for the troops in Iraq at 100,000 troops to stop the surge and implement an immediate drawdown of 40-50,000 combat troops. Any troops beyond that level should be redeployed immediately.
- Prohibit funding to deploy any new troops to Iraq that do not meet real readiness standards and that have not been properly trained and equipped, so American tax dollars are used to train and equip our troops, instead of escalating the war.
- Make it clear that President Bush is conducting this war without authorization. The 2002 authorization did not give President Bush the power to use U.S. troops to police a civil war. President Bush exceeded his authority long ago, and now needs to end the war and ask Congress for new authority to manage the withdrawal of the U.S. military presence and to help Iraq achieve stability.
- Require a complete withdrawal of combat troops in Iraq in the next 12-18 months without leaving behind any permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq.
There's more on the Iraq Plan at the Edwards website: http://johnedwards.com/
By the way a new Fox News poll finds that 54% of Americans would vote to cut off funding for escalation if they were in Congress.
Blitzer then asked about what Edwards had learned from the Bloggyrls Flap
Edwards: Well, the lesson (you learn lessons in everything you do in life, including in political campaigns, Wolf) ... is we're entering a brave new world with the net and the blogosphere. And it's a powerful world. It's a world that's going to have, and should have, a huge impact on the way we do politics in America. Because the net and the blogosphere is grass roots politics at its best. But candidates can't control what people say.
We believe in free speech in this country. This is a democracy. People have a right to express their opinions.
Edwards understands the netroots and is really the only leading candidate to reach out to the blogosphere in a real, serious way. During his announcement in December Edwards came to DailyKos to take questions, the Edwards campaign had ads all over the national and state blogosphere encouraging the netroots to learn about and join his campaign, Edwards met with local bloggers at every one of his six stops, and he even took bloggers along with him on his plane and gave them full access. Neither Hillary nor Obama have come to DailyKos since announcing (Obama has been here twice, but not since October 2005, Hillary seems to have a userid but has never used it). Obama hasn't even been on his own blog -- there seems to be little attempt at interaction (beyond Facebook). Hillary ran a few ads after her announcement, but only on a few major blogs. Obama never ran a single ad on any blog that I've seen.
Naturally, such a cutting-edge campaign that takes risks is going to have a few bumps along the way, but Edwards thinks it's worth it.
Edwards' appearance on Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO on Friday
The video of the Maher interview is here and here.
Maher looked very impressed with the answers he was given and commented numerous times on Edwards' "honesty" and "straight talk."
They laughed it up that Bill Clinton, who advised Edwards on his 2004 campaign, doesn't call anymore. Here's my rough transcript:
On the Edwards' universal healthcare plan and raising taxes.
Maher: "Don't you think you should be lying on taxes."
I think we ought to tell the truth with how we're going to pay for universal healthcare. We need a president that the American people can trust.
On Iraq, congress and the Bush-McCain Escalation
We should stop this escalation. The way is not to pass non-binding resolution. We should use congressional power to start drawing down US troops in Iraq. We cannot allow George Bush to make another in a long series of tragic mistakes. We Democrats have to be strong and do what is right. [Edwards wouldn't support the Feingold total defunding of Iraq stating instead] We need to be leaving Iraq, [but] I would not do it suddenly and just pull everyone out immediately. If I were president we'd take 40,000-50,000 troops out of Iraq immediately. And then we have an orderly withdrawal of combat troops out of Iraq in about a year. And we would combine that with engaging with the Syrians and Iranians instead of antagonizing them. That'll give us the best chance in Iraq.
Edwards on the 2002 AUMF vote and his "I was wrong" oped (and comparing that to Hillary's stance)
"I was wrong" means I am taking responsibility for making a serious mistake on the vote.... We desperately need leaders in America who will admit when they are wrong, we're all human. And when we're wrong, change course and take responsibility. You can't have a restored moral leadership in this country without telling the truth. And, at least for me, this is the truth.
On campaign fundraising in 2008 and beyond:
We need a president of the United States who can lead America toward true public financing of all of our political campaigns.
And they end:
Maher: That is a lot of straight talk here, on Iraq and taxes. Usually the guy that’s this honest doesn’t win!
Edwards: I think we're going to change that in 2008.
Maher: I hope so.
At the end of the interview, Edwards says he's willing to get the Party nomination as the consensus second choice since it'll mean he'll get to do the things he wants to do as president.
Both of the appearances were via satellite from Las Vegas. So what was Edwards doing in Nevada?
He held a Town Hall Meeting on Saturday on his new universal healthcare plan at the IBEW Local 357 union hall. AP has the story.
According to KLAS, Edwards told the enthusiastic crowd of electricians that universal healthcare would be a top priority in his administration:
"The way I would pay it -- we're just going to get rid of George Bush's tax cuts for people who make over $200,000 a year, and that's the way we're paying for it," says Edwards.
He also apparently took in the NBA All-Star Game (John and Elizabeth are both huge basketball and football fans).
Also, this weekend, Edwards called on President Bush to suspend negotiations for a free trade agreement with South Korea:
"Thousands of American autoworkers learned this week that they will lose their jobs because of ill-conceived and poorly enforced trade agreements - and what is the Bush Administration doing? It's working overtime to sign a trade agreement with a country that refuses to open its market to American cars.
"Enough is enough. President Bush should shut down all trade negotiations with South Korea until they prove their willingness to open their market to American automobiles and other U.S. products and agree to trade fairly.
"The huge loss of jobs announced this week by DaimlerChrysler should be a wake-up call for this president: one-sided trade agreements hurt working families.
"Instead of stubbornly pursuing policies that put Americans out of work, the Administration should focus on making sure new agreements include real labor and environmental protections and should enforce our rights under existing trade agreements. And the Congress should make it clear to the President that it will override any agreement that does not protect American jobs and American interests."
South Korea exported about 800,000 vehicles to the U.S. in 2005, while U.S. carmakers sold only about 4,000 cars in South Korea. South Korea maintains a number of regulatory hurdles that block American cars, including safety and emissions standards applied only to imported cars. A trade deal with South Korea could be the biggest since NAFTA in 1993.
TomP had a diary on it, John Edwards calls on Bush to suspend trade agreement negotiations with South Korea.
Finally, US News & World Report has a long story, The Evolution of John Edwards: The smiling centrist of 2004 is now a growling populist. Does he know what Democrats want?
And now, you're all caught up on this weekend in the Campaign to Change America.
Crossposted at Michigan for Edwards.