Elizabeth Edwards, wife of Presidential hopeful John Edwards, visited Plymouth State University on Sunday, October 7, campaigning for her husband, answering questions based off of his platform and urging people to vote for him.
“My job is easy in a lot of ways,” said Edwards, opening her speech, “I just have to talk about somebody who I did decide to spend a lifetime with. We have been married for thirty years and spent longer than that together.” Edwards said it showed something about somebody’s character who can devote themselves to a person whose life has had so many ups and downs. She implied that hers has had a lot of both.
Along with being the wife of John Edwards, Mrs. Edwards has also been recognized recently in the media for her ongoing struggle with breast cancer, in which John Edwards has supported her throughout his campaigning. She also published a book in 2006 titled “Saving Graces: Finding Solace and Strength from Friends and Strangers,” which documents her struggle with cancer as well as the couples’ coping with the death of their son.
“This election is a lot about character, about honesty and integrity,” said Edwards, “finding someone who is a real leader, who can solve these problems we have. I think the rest of the country counts on you to make a really important decision in the upcoming election. I hope we are still talking about January, but whenever it is the country depends on you and on the people of Iowa because you all are the ones that get the chance to look people in the eye, make a determination and decide whether or not they measure up based on their principles.”
“If people listen to John Edwards,” Edwards continued, “they are going to be exactly convinced that he is the leader that we need in this moment.”
She laid out her views that each candidate is bringing their own views and throwing them into a smorgasbord of ideas, from which, Edwards feels, all the candidates are entitled to freely take from so that whoever is elected President will have the very best ideas and policies to work from. This was in response to Senator Hillary Clinton creating a healthcare plan that almost mirrored the one John Edwards had laid out earlier in his campaign.
“I think that’s what they should be doing,” said Edwards, “when they see a good idea, we don’t own it. We hope that it will be passed and we hope that everybody will embrace it. That’s the whole idea, to get everybody thinking that’s a good idea.”
Edwards also spent some time answering questions from the audience. Professor Terry Downs asked Edwards to discuss her husbands’ plan on aiding students in higher education as well as in preschool.
“John has a program that he calls ‘College for Everyone,'” Edwards said, “What it does is it pays for the college tuition and the books for every freshmen in college. It is not dependent on your income. Every freshman in college qualified to go to college can volunteer and work at their university for ten hours a week…the idea is that you give back.”
Alex Martin, a senior, asked what her husband’s opinion was about countries like Iran.
“I think we need to have dialog with these countries, whether they’re friendly or unfriendly,” said Edwards, “A lot of that work has traditionally been done by the professional staff of the state department and we’ll have great successes with this administration instead of posturing and making blanket statements, axis of evil kinds of statements.”
Edwards ended her presentation by answering other questions, touching on a variety of issues that included green industry, unions, alternative energy sources, and No Child Left