Like Abraham Lincoln, John Edwards comes from humble beginnings and knows how the working person must struggle to make ends meet. He is a self-made man whose political career consists of one term as the Democratic U.S. Senator from North Carolina and an unfortunate failed bid for vice president in 2004.  After Edwards and John Kerry lost the election to incumbents George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, Edwards formed the One America Committee, a political action committee, and was appointed director of the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law. Edwards said the difference between his message to voters in 2004 and his 2008 presidential bid is that, “I’ve learned since the last campaign that it’s great to identify a problem … but the way you change things is by taking action.”

On December 27, 2006, he announced his candidacy for the 2008 presidential campaign on NBC’s “Today Show” standing on a platform of cutting poverty, working with other countries to slow global warming and the task of dealing with the troops in
Iraq. He has planned his scheduled kickoff in New Orleans, still devastated from last year’s Hurricane Katrina, where he hopes to highlight his signature concern for the economic disparity dividing America.

Edwards was born on June 10, 1953, in Seneca, South Carolina where his father worked in a textile mill. Edwards was the first person in his family to attend college earning first a bachelor’s degree in textile technology and later his law degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While at UNC, he met Elizabeth Anania, who became his wife in 1977, and the mother of their four children; three of which are still living, the youngest being only four-years-old. They are a typical American family with heartaches and fears including the loss of their son, Wade, at age sixteen, and Elizabeth’s fight with breast cancer that began on November 3, 2004, the day Kerry and Edwards conceded their defeat in the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election. After treatment with chemotherapy and radiotherapy, she became an activist for women, cancer patients, the Democratic Party, and her husband’s One America Committee. Sadly, on March 22, 2007 it was announced that her cancer had returned to her rib but as she is asymptomatic, she is expected to continue her activities in Edward’s Presidential campaign while being treated.

As a respected senator Edwards, during President Bill Clinton’s 1999 impeachment trial in the Senate, was given the responsibility of deposing witnesses Monica Lewinsky and fellow Democrat Vernon Jordan. Then during the 2000 presidential campaign, Edwards was reported to be on Democratic nominee Al Gore’s vice presidential nominee “short list” (along with John Kerry and Joe Lieberman, Gore’s eventual pick). Edwards served on the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and U.S. Senate Committee on Judiciary. Also during his Senate term Edwards co-sponsored 203 bills including the Iraq War Resolution which he cosponsored with Lieberman and also later voted for it in the full Senate to authorize the use of military force against Iraq. Edwards also supported and voted for the Patriot Act and generally supported positions on abortion rights, affirmative action, and the death penalty. He was also the first person to introduce comprehensive anti-spyware legislation with the Spyware Control and Privacy Protection Act and advocated rolling back the Bush administration’s tax cuts and ending mandatory minimum sentencing for non-violent offenders. In terms of international relations Edwards supported the expansion of the H-1B visa program to increase the number of work visas for immigrant workers and generally supported expanding legal immigration to the United States, while working with Mexico to provide better border security and stop illegal trafficking.

Edwards stance is similar to Lincoln’s in regards to the treatment of minorities. While Edwards works to make immigration easier for immigrant workers, especially those from Mexico, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation to free the slaves. While Edwards was in a position to vote for war after 9/11, Lincoln was in power during the Civil War. While Edwards comes from a working class family, Lincoln was born in a log cabin. If my correlation is correct both men are/were great leaders who only sought out what was best the country as a whole. If Edwards makes the 2008 election will I vote for him? It will depend on who else is running but at this point he is high on my list of potential candidates.

Tags: john edwards, abraham lincoln, senator edwards, presidential hopeful, elizabeth edwards, working class candidate, supporter of free choice, legalize immigration