Edwards makes a KC stop

From today's Kansas City Star:

John Edwards' flack didn't like the direction the interview was going.
Talk about the future, Kim Rubey gently reminded the former North Carolina senator and 2004 Democratic vice presidential candidate Friday.

But the question to Edwards was about the past and whether it had been a mistake for the Kerry-Edwards ticket to abandon Missouri three weeks before the election.

Edwards, 51, skirted the word “mistake” but said the call — which Missouri Democrats believe rippled down to the narrow loss of their gubernatorial candidate, Claire McCaskill, and other Democrats — was made by someone else in the Kerry for President organization.

“All I can tell you is it was not my decision,” Edwards said in an interview with The Kansas City Star.

Click the title of this post to read the rest of the story.

Update 3/22/05: Scarlett1 who went to the Kansas Dem Days Anniversary Dinner, had a great photo of JRE.

He is still the most positive man with vision for the future. He admits he doesn't have all of the ideas. We'll help you in framing them, JRE.

Edwards among Harvard Institute of Politics visiting fellows

Democratic vice presidential candidate and former senator John Edwards will be among visiting fellows at Harvard University's Institute of Politics this spring, the school announced Wednesday.

Edwards, 51, of North Carolina, ran for the Democratic nomination for president before being chosen as U.S. Sen. John Kerry's running mate last year.He will join U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., and Michael Deaver, international vice chairman for Edelman Worldwide and former deputy chief of staff to President Ronald Reagan.

The schedule for the fellows calls for Edwards to visit on April 13, Kolbe from March 7 to March 8 and Deaver sometime in April, said officials at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Typically, visiting fellows meet with various student groups to discuss topical issues and their experiences in public and political service; give a public address in the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum; and participate in a public policy class with students and Kennedy School of Government faculty.

Edwards rallies party

From the Miami Herald:

A former U.S. vice presidential candidate on Saturday offered something Democratic activists hadn't heard in a while: hope and a vision for the party's future.

Former U.S. Sen. John Edwards, speaking to hundreds of Broward Democrats at their annual Jefferson-Jackson fundraising dinner in Weston, assured Democrats they are not lacking a future and touted his party as the one that will ``stand up for people nobody else will.''

''I know the soul of this party and so do you,'' Edwards said. ``It lies deep inside each of us and goes to the core of what we believe not just as Democrats but as Americans. Everyone -- and I mean everyone -- deserves a fair chance, and we have a moral responsibility to help those who are doing everything right, but are still struggling.''

Edwards -- sounding like the 2008 presidential candidate he says he's not -- yet -- accused the Bush administration of being too closely tied to Wall Street with its plan to partially privatize social security, and hinted at some of the work he plans to do as head of an anti-poverty think tank at the University of North Carolina.

Saturday night's appearance in front of Broward Democrats was Edward's second major speech since he and running mate Sen. John Kerry lost the November election. Edwards spoke earlier this month in front of Democrats in New Hampshire, home to the first presidential primary in the nation.
Edwards, who arrived with an entourage of aides, still had the air of a candidate -- a sign, along with his appearance in New Hampshire, that he still has presidential aspirations.

The former North Carolina senator attended a private dinner Friday night in Miami-Beach to thank some of the biggest Florida fundraisers from the Kerry-Edwards campaign.

But Edwards brushed off questions about his future candidacy and said his biggest priority right now is the health of his wife, Elizabeth, who found out she had breast cancer the day after the election.

For many of the Democrats attending Saturday's dinner, the 2008 presidential campaign and Edwards were overshadowed by a more pressing priority for their party: putting a Democrat in the governor's mansion in 2006 after Republican Gov. Jeb Bush leaves office.

Potential candidates spent the evening seeking the support and financial assistance of high-profile Broward Democrats like Broward County Commissioner Diana Wasserman-Rubin, who was a key fundraiser for the Kerry campaign. Official candidates like state Sen. Rod Smith, D-Gainesville and U.S. Rep. Jim Davis, D-Tampa, and unofficial candidates like state Democratic Party chairman Scott Maddox spent the evening cozying up to Broward's Democratic elite.

''They all want me to join their team,'' said Wasserman-Rubin, who said she would get her own re-election campaign off and running before endorsing anyone.

Broward Democratic Party Chairman Mitch Ceasar said the party raised between $75,000 and $100,000 Saturday night. The Jefferson-Jackson Dinner is the local party's biggest annual fundraiser and its main source of money for get-out-the-vote efforts.

Last year, in the midst of the pre-2004 election buzz and with former First Lady and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton as a guest speaker, the event raised a record-setting $100,000.

Edwards, conscious of the hometown crowd, offered a final tribute to one of Broward's longtime Democratic stalwarts, Amadeo Trinchi'' Trinchitella, a condo kingmaker who died Feb. 4 at age 87.

''Tonight, we know that this dinner is incomplete without our friend Trinchi,'' Edwards said. ``If Broward County had a king, Trinchi would have crowned them.''

JRE--always thoughtful. Smile.