John Edwards, a Democratic senator from North Carolina and a multimillionaire former lawyer, announced his intention to seek the presidency in 2004 yesterday, declaring himself a candidate for ”regular folks” against the stablishment ”insiders” of the Bush administration.
At the age of 49 the youthful and photogenic Edwards is seen by many Democratic party activists as a promising young face in a field crowded with Washington veterans chasing the party’s presidential nomination next year.
But that advantage is also a handicap. He has been a senator for only four years, and at a time of chronic security concerns experience is at an electoral premium.
In recent opinion polls he has had negligible support from Democratic party members, but a year before the primary contests begins the ratings largely reflect name recognition.
Announcing his candidacy in front of his North Carolina home yesterday, Edwards spent little time addressing America’s ”war on terror”, making no direct criticism of the current administration’s handling of the threat other than to say that he would seek to involve ordinary people more in local counter-terrorism measures.
The central thrust of his pitch was a populist assault on President Bush’s relations with various industrial lobbies and wealthy backers.
”We couldn’t bring down the cost of prescription drugs by closing some legal loopholes because of his relationship with pharmaceutical companies,” he told journalists.
”He weakens clean-air laws because the energy companies want him to weaken clean-air laws. His economic policies are focused on people at the top of the income spectrum, not something that lifts up all Americans.”
In implied contrast to Mr Bush’s wealthy family background, Edwards highlighted his relatively humble North Carolina upbringing, pointing out, ”I was the first to go to college and my dad worked in a textile mill all of his life. My mother’s last job was working at the post office.”
He made his fortune as a personal-injury lawyer, winning record damages for people harmed by medical malpractice or defective products, and usually earning a third of the award in each case.
It is not a popular profession in a country fast becoming weary of its high rate of litigation. In a sign of that backlash, surgeons in West Virginia went on strike yesterday arguing that they could no longer afford to pay the premiums necessary to insure themselves against malpractice suits.
Edwards has worked hard, with some success, to cast his legal work as a Robin Hood crusade on behalf of the vulnerable.
”I run for president to be champion — to be a champion for the same people I fought for all my life: regular folks,” he said.
Like President Bush, Edwards champions tax cuts as the best means to revitalise the US economy, but yesterday he argued that they should not be at the expense of a balanced federal budget. He also said that the administration’s 10-year plan would only bring benefits for the wealthiest 1% of the population.
Talking to journalists yesterday at the presidential retreat in Crawford, Texas, Bush denied that his fiscal policy favoured the wealthy.
”I understand the politics of economic stimulus, that some would like to turn this into class warfare,” he said. ”That’s not how I think. I think about the overall economy and how best to help those folks who are looking for work.”
He said he would announce further economic measures next week in Chicago.
He did not give details but the measures are expected to include reduced taxes on company dividends, and the early implementation of income tax cuts already agreed with Congress.
Edwards’ proposed tax relief would be aimed at ”middle and low-income people”, and would include an immediate $500 tax credit towards the cost of fuel for heating.
He also said the federal government should spend more money supporting state budgets, which are in crisis across the country in the wake of the economic downturn. – Guardian Unlimited Â