In a speech billed as a "major foreign policy address," John Edwards offered as much criticism for Democratic rival Hillary Clinton as he did for the Bush Administration.
"Hillary is voting like a hawk in Washington, D.C. and talking like a dove in Iowa," Edwards told a crowd of 200 on the University of Iowa campus, continuing the aggressive critique of the Democratic frontrunner that he launched at last week's debate. Lines from the debate, such as mocking the concept "general election mode" with "we only need one mode, tell the truth mode," appeared again.
"Senator Clinton once again sided with Bush and the neocons" on the recent vote branding Iran's Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization, Edwards said. Winning some of the 20 minute speech's first applause for again saying his vote for the Iraq War was wrong, the former senator said "Senator Clinton and I learned very different lessons from the run-up to the Iraq war."
"We have seen this movie before and it doesn't end well," he said, noting the Bush Administration's repeated references to weapons of mass destruction, this time in Iran. "In Iraq, it doesn't end at all."
In addition to the "compare and contrast" with Clinton, the policy meat of the speech (handily outlined in advance) was a five-point Iran plan complete with bullet points:
But before all that, Edwards said to applause, "we have to begin by ending this mess of a war in Iraq." He noted that the Democratic Congress has had a year to move on ending the war but has not acted and pledged "no combat troops, no combat missions, no combat period" by the end of 2009. In contrast, "Senator Clinton has not had specific answers to specific questions," he said, mocking her pledge to meet with military leaders within two months of taking office. "She will extend the war, I will end the war."
Edwards seemed so focused on Clinton that he paused for a moment when I asked him, in a brief press availability after the speech, to compare his stands on the war with other rivals such as Barack Obama. Edwards noted that Obama had missed the Iran vote "I think he has said he would have voted no, and if that's accurate, if he would have voted no, that's the correct position. We have had some differences about how aggressive Congress should be to bring this war to an end, with Senator Obama, but the big differences are between Senator Clinton and myself."
The tone was serious as Edwards stuck close to the script, which lay abandoned on the podium as he talked to the press. 26 pages for the 20 minute address, double spaced, about a 14 point font. In a rare omission, the speech did not begin with his customary "Elizabeth's fine" reference. After the speech, a little rally hoopla returned, as the volume was turned up on Bruce Springsteen's "The Rising" and Edwards struck the quintessential candidate pose with a baby.
The focus on Clinton was also on the mind of Edwards advisor Joe Trippi, who was lurking near the press table at the back of the hall. "We're here to keep making the clear differences between us and Hillary Clinton," he told me before the speech. "On Iran, on Iraq, she wants to continue combat missions, we want to end it. In Iran she's bought into the terminology of the Bush administration of the `global war on terror,' and Bush is already using that. Her vote to call the Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization was a mistake. We wouldn't have done that, Biden didn't, Dodd didn't."
Are Obama and Edwards canceling each other out in the race to be the Not Hillary candidate? "Obama's been out there for 10 months, and he hasn't really taken hold," Trippi says. "In a lot of ways, he's has his shot to make his case, and we're just beginning to make ours," he said, citing the recent debut of Edward' first major TV buy in Iowa. "People saw Edwards make his case in the debate and saw the differences with Hillary Clinton."
Edwards is focusing a lot of attention on Johnson County, where the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is very influential. SEIU represents University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics nurses, and purple SEIU shirts were much in evidence at the event. Local Edwards supporter Tom Carsner, a former county party chair, reported on a campaign commercial shoot last night at City High in Iowa City that featured an even larger flag than the one at the rally, which measured about 10 by 15 feet.
"I didn't disagree with anything he said," commented local activist Peter Fisher, who says his choice of candidates has narrowed to "a short list of six. Not Hillary. (pause) And not Kucinich."
"Gravel?!?" I ask incredulously.
"Gore," says Fisher firmly. Edwards must not be worried about a late entry by the Nobel laureate, as he said "Al Gore got it right about the preventive war doctrine" during the speech both to underscore a point and drop a name that's popular with the Democratic base.
Johnson County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek with Edwards
Edwards returns to Johnson County again Sunday for a local fundraiser for two of his supporters, County Supervisor Terrence Neuzil and recent Edwards endorser Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek, both up for re-election next year.
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