This morning, John Edwards delivered an impassioned speech to ACORN's National Convention in Detroit, Michigan. Speaking to organizers and activists gathered at the Cobo Center, Edwards extolled the common goal of ACORN and his Half in Ten campaign to end poverty in America, making frequent appeals to organize and to campaign for Barack Obama this November as part of that cooperative effort:
So let's walk together. Let's not stop until we end poverty in this country. We can't get that with John McCain and four more years of that mess. Eight is enough. But if you want change, if you believe in your heart and soul that anything is possible, then lock arms with me, walk hand-in-hand and let's march to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and put Barack Obama in the Presidency, and make America what it's capable of being. We can do this together. Yes we can. Yes we can, and we will.
It was refreshing to me to see Edwards back in his warrior mold. He spoke at ease once again about the wall dividing those infamous "two Americas," this time integrating a message hope that Obama could undo some of the greatest divisive efforts of the Bush administration. On the whole, the speech offered an amount of optimism largely absent from his '08 primary campaign.
You can see the entire speech HERE, and check out more highlights below the fold...
Edwards opened by reaffirming his commitment to the goal of ending poverty through the cooperative effort of ACORN and the Half in Ten campaign.
This is ACORN, where anything is possible, and I can't think of a better partner to lock arms with on Half in Ten. Together, we can walk through this country and end the great moral shame of poverty in the United States. And I won't stop walking with you, working with you, until this job is done. We can do this together.
As for the specific efforts necessary to achieving that goal:
We know all those things that work-they've worked in the past and they'll work again-raising the minimum wage to a real living wage, cutting taxes for low-income workers, guaranteeing access to health care and child care, extending unemployment insurance, building more affordable homes.
Transitioning from policy to politics, Edwards appealed to ACORN to support their fellow community organizer.
All those ideas will not come into being unless we organize together this fall, because...[Edwards removes the microphone from its holder]...Let me get this thing out. Because there is one person who not only stands with you, but he's walked the walk. There's one person who knows what it's like to organize in the basement of a church. There's one person who knows what it's like to knock on doors to save a school. There's one person who knows what a community center can do for kids. There's one person who's been an organizer just like everyone of you, and who needs you to organize for him this fall, and to make him the next President of the United States. And that person is Barack Obama.
Continuing with the Obama campaign's effort to endear John McCain to the failed policies of George W. Bush, Edwards introduced a phrase that he would return to several times throughout the speech:
They've had eight years to try it their way. Now they want four more. I don't know about you, but I think eight's enough.
Returning to the "Two Americas" theme that defined much of his own campaign, Edwards decried the wall he sees as separating the American people from the power structure in Washington:
Our job, come January 2009, is to tear that wall down and give this government back to the American people. John McCain wants that wall to get taller. Barack Obama will take it down.
It is all of our responsibility to do something about this. We are in this thing together. It is a moral outrage that in a country of our wealth, kids go to bed hungry, families sleep in cars and our grandparents have to cut their medicine in half so they an afford to buy food. That wall-it goes against everything America stands for. It drags us all down. It is a disgrace to our character. It divides our neighborhoods. It keeps too many people from reaching their dreams.
With particular vigor, Edwards identified the responsibility of the health industry in maintaining that division:
And how about health care, brothers and sisters? You know the insurance companies, the drug companies, the HMOs, they get their way. They helped build that wall. They built it brick by brick.
On foreign policy, and America's reputation in the global community:
There's also a wall that's divided the way America's viewed in the world. America-as the beacon of hope-is behind it. And now, because of [the Bush administration], the world sees America as a bully. They see Iraq, Guantanamo, secret prisons and a government that argues that waterboarding is not torture. This is not ok. Eight is enough.
Closing his speech, Edwards struck a decidedly optimistic tone:
ACORN, we can take down that wall with Barack Obama as President. Yes we can.
You know we've faced tough challenges before. In times of war, great depressions and deep divisions that tore at our nation's soul. We came together and we went to work to make sure we passed on a stronger and better America to our children. And we will meet this challenge again. This is what Half in Ten is about. This is who you are. This is who we are. This is our moment. This is our time to lock arms again and take a walk through this country. We're going to look at everything that needs to grow stronger and needs to start by making sure that no one is ever denied opportunity and justice and an equal chance again.
So let's walk together. Let's not stop until we end poverty in this country. We can't get that with John McCain and four more years of that mess. Eight is enough. But if you want change, if you believe in your heart and soul that anything is possible, then lock arms with me, walk hand-in-hand and let's march to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and put Barack Obama in the Presidency, and make America what it's capable of being. We can do this together. Yes we can. Yes we can, and we will.
