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 Video: The Promise of America (7:08)
Edwards digs deeper into his mill village roots than ever before to demonstrate to us all the core values that he was raised to uphold as he asks for our vote. He talks about his grandparents and his father working 5, 6, 7 days a week in the mill sometimes 12 hours a day. His grandfather was partially paralyzed and worked the graveyard shift, his grandmother walked to and from the mill in her kitchen apron and his father worked there doing "hard, tedious, difficult work" day in and day out for more than 35 years.
And the question is why did they do it? Why did my parents do it? Why did my grandparents do it? Why did your parents do it? Why did they work and sacrifice, willing to do virtually anything for you?
They did it to so that their children could have a better life ... but to do that it's time for a little truth telling because there are obstacles in the way and those obstacles include drug companies, insurance companies, oil companies, power companies, their lobbyists ... (applause) ... those who have so much influence over what's happening.
Corporate power, corporate greed stands in the way of being able to do what America needs and what America deserves. It stands in the way of the promise of America for your children. It's that simple.
Edwards gives us a couple of examples here of how the elites have infiltrated so many of the issues and prevented the change we all want: the lack of universal health care; the Medicare Part D bill; the lack of attention or work on global warming and conservation; NAFTA, CAFTA and trade policies that cost America millions of jobs; "paid mercenaries" in Iraq making ten times (huge applause line here) what our soldiers earn; billion dollar no bid contracts for Halliburton and tax breaks for companies leaving America and the richest of our citizens.
This is insanity, I mean it makes absolutely no sense. And nothing will change until we take these people on and say we're not going to tolerate this anymore.
As JJ mentioned in his intro remarks, so too Edwards reminds us that the sovereignty of our government rests in our own hands and not those of the elites. Time and time again in our history our government has become disconnected with the principles we as a people hold sacred: equality; fairness and opportunity. The cynicism, apathy and despair in the electorate out here goes way beyond anything that a single election or primary can address, Edwards continues:
And it's the easiest thing in the world to do, to turn your head.
I've done it, I'm as guilty as anybody. It is easy and here's why because you think to yourself there is nothing we can do about this, they've got too much money, they've got too much influence, they have too much power.
No they don't because the truth is the real power in this country is in places just like this with you. We can change this thing. We can do this together.
My parents raised me ... to believe that the men and women who worked in the mill with them are worth every bit as much as the man that owns that mill. And the people I grew up with including my parents are worth every bit as much as any president of the United States. That is at the heart and soul of what makes this country great ... that is the promise of America.
This week Marc Ambinder writes about the Edwards surge he sees, "Edwards has been a credible, legitimate candidate all along, but has probably received the absolute worst treatment from the press - measured both by the quantity and quality of the coverage."
It is a harsh truth to realize that "that crowd in Washington" won't just do their jobs like they're supposed to. The crowd in Portsmouth on Wednesday just ate it up because most people I speak with realize that the system that has concentrated wealth and power in the hands of so few for a couple of decades now is essentially the central organizing principle in DC today regardless of party. Money buys power, the power to write the laws, and the fix is in before any razzle dazzle happens in front of the cameras for the benefit of our paltry elucidation.
Just as Deepthroat said about another select group of insiders: "Forget the myths the media's created about the White House. The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things just got out of hand." Well the rot and corruption caused by lobbyists and big corporate cash fueling our political campaigns has just gotten out of hand today as well, but as Edwards said Wednesday, the power to change things still lies in our hands. That is also the truth.
 Video: America Rises (5:30)
Edwards paints an unfortunately cliche picture on the economic disparities we see in America today. The disparity between the rich and poor in this country is growing and it's currently worse than at any time since the Great Depression. The majority of the middle-class is getting sucked into the second America that Edwards made famous last time around. CEOs earn hundreds of millions of dollars and we see record profits for companies and the elites on the one hand while at the same time the share of growth for the bottom 99% of us shrinks and job losses, rising health care, housing and energy costs and anti-union policies just accelerate the bloodletting in the middle-class.
The James Lowe story was told and it drew gasps from the crowd. Mr. Lowe is a man born with a cleft palette that Edwards met on the trail. He didn't get the plastic surgery necessary to allow him to speak until he was 50 years old because he's poor and couldn't afford it. A charity arranged for the operation. I thought that was the kind of medicins sans frontieres stuff doctors and nurses did in foreign countries. I was wrong. Right here in America a man can not be able to speak for lack of money to pay for a routine surgery for five long decades.
But as I was listening to his story I felt such power inside me. How long are we going to let insurance companies, drug companies and their lobbyists run this country? America doesn't belong to them. America belongs to us.
James Lowe finally got his voice back, don't you think it's time for your voice to be heard?
I think it's high time.
 Edwards talks about a shelter he visited run by "some really sweet people" in Iowa. When he went there recently he was told a harsh truth by those sweet people. They recently had to turn away families, maybe 70 or 75 mothers with their children.
So I said to them, "when you turn them away where do they go?"
[They go] "back to their cars and back to the bridges."
At the same time that we have record profits for corporate America, last year 35 million Americans, in the richest nation on the planet, roughly the population of California went hungry. And tonight 200,000 men and women who wore the uniform of the United States of America will go to sleep under bridges and on grates.
America is better than this, we're better than this. And I'll tell you something, something is going to happen starting right here on January the 8th right here in NH.
This is what's going to happen, you're going to say: "enough is enough, we want this democracy back." You're going to rise up and your voice is going to be heard. And it will not just be heard in NH, all those people with cameras in the back? They won't even know what hit 'em.
There will be a rising and a tidal wave that will spread across this country that will bring a change (standing ovation now). When we stand up for 47 million Americans who have no health care coverage America rises. When we stand-up for the 35 million who went hungry last year America rises. When we stand-up for the 37 million who live in poverty America rises. When we speak for James Lowe and millions like him America rises.
And that rising will begin with you, right here in NH with you on January the 8th.
No, he's "not done yet," he is "having some fun," up there.
 Video: John Edwards: An Epic Fight (4:35)
Why is Edwards the one to lead?
And why does he deserve your vote on January the 8th?
You know I listen, we have some wonderful candidates running on this side for the Democratic nomination, people that I like very much and respect very much.
But I do listen sometimes to what people say and the suggestion that if we sit at a table with drug companies, oil companies, insurance companies and negotiate they will voluntarily give their power away (smattering of laughter) I think is a fantasy. It is a complete, we need to be honest with ourselves.
We have an epic fight in front of us. Not with politicians, sometimes people misunderstand me. It is the responsibility of the President to work with the Congress and I will do that.
But we have an epic fight with these entrenched powerful monied interests that stand between you and the America that you deserve, that stand between you and a democracy that works for everybody. So you had better be ready for that battle and you had better be ready to send someone into that arena that has what it takes inside for this fight in the great tradition of Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman.
I still remember the famous Harry Truman line, you know? "You're giving 'em hell Harry." He said , "no, I'm just telling the truth and it feels like hell." It's exactly right because we're going to tell the truth. And we're going to speak up for all those Americans who deserve a voice and deserve to be heard.
The change agenda is all the rage these days, but neither Clinton nor Obama are offering voters a true path to change this country because they don't even articulate the reality about where we are today. We are in trouble, deep trouble, and we all have to stand up and fight now to return the power to the people in this country where it belongs. The time for negotiation has passed, negotiation and capitulation got us to where we are.
Edwards brings us back to that mill village with an anecdote about the first time he got in a serious fight with a neighborhood kid in a "rough town" where you "had to fight to survive" and he got "his butt kicked." He came home all bloody that day and his father, Wallace, sat him down to tell him how things go in the Edwards household. His father told him:
"Son, I don't ever want to see you start a fight and I don't even want to hear that you started a fight, but I want you to listen to me and listen to me carefully. You never, ever, walk away from a fight. And tomorrow I want you to go and find that kid and kick his butt."
Emphasis Edwards. Notice there's no second part to this story. Wallace Edwards must have been a real fine communicator and as you know the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree. Edwards continues:
In those days I was fighting for myself just trying to survive, but later on I spent 20 years in courtrooms in exactly the same battles ... we'd walk into a courtroom and there would be all the army of corporate lawyers on the other side with all the money in the world arrayed behind them. I learned from that experience that if you're tough enough, is you're smart enough and you've got the guts, you've got what it takes inside for the fight, you can win those fights because we won over and over and over again.
We have an epic fight in front of us, we can fool ourselves and think that if we just nice them to death and it'll all take care of itself or we can be honest. This fight infiltrates everything that we're trying to do. How can there be a greater moral issue like we're going to preserve the planet for future generations?
There is no greater moral issue.
So we know exactly what needs to be done. We just need a leader, a president and you joining forces to bring about this change and being willing to fight for that change because without the fight it will never ever happen. And I'll tell you this ... if we do this together, if we go after these folks together, then we can bring the change that this country needs ... we will make absolutely certain that we can look our children in the eye and say, "you're going to have a better life than we had and we left America and the world better than we found it."
The Edwards message is one tall drink of water, kids. It is time in this country to fight for what is right and remove the obstacles laid out in our path by the "entrenched powerful monied interests" and a compromised media. Edwards is not just a truth-teller and a fighter but he is the leader we've been waiting for to restore democracy, fairness, hope and transparency to a system that has clearly gotten out of hand down there in DC, but he can't do it alone not by a long shot.
The path we choose now will determine whether or not we will be able to succeed far beyond nominating and electing John Edwards president in 2008. The time for negotiation is over. It's time to take responsibility for a body politic disembodied from the sovereign people it serves. That crowd in DC down there is sent there by us out here, the little people who get littler everyday. It is our responsibility to vote for a substantive change agenda based on truth and hope, an agenda based on our creed as a people and the promise of what it means to be an American. It is our responsibility to vote for something and not just someone. It is our responsibility to fight this battle and rise to our true level in this country and this world once again.
Ms. Raitt and Mr. Browne performed a great song called I Am a Patriot on Wednesday. Its refrain is "and the river opens for the righteous." This gushing river of political pablum spoon fed to us by the media is nothing more than a sorry attempt to fill up the air time between the commercials. You determine the path of this river. So don't let the media corner you into thinking this is a two person race. JJ can feel the ground shaking under his feet. He can feel the rising as he goes out there in the snow and bitter cold to bring others along in this epic battle. We didn't start this fight but now we must join the battle nonetheless.
Send us a President, New Hampshire.
Send us John Edwards.
Don't be fooled by the "quantity and quality of the coverage" and disgusting smear attempts, all of them, to derail the Edwards agenda because it is your agenda after all. Don't ever be satisfied, not until justice rolls down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.
Send us a President, New Hampshire.
Send us John Edwards.
If you can't make a road trip out to an early state with the campaign then consider a signing-up for some good old fashioned phonebanking right from the comfort of your own home. For details on the Edwards specifics and he's certainly got a lot of those check here.
All the Q & A for the event will be posted in another diary. I hope you tune it for that vlog as well.
This diary is another in the continuing guerrilla vlogger series. I'm not associated with the campaign in any way although I do volunteer, but I speak only for myself when blogging. I support Edwards for the nomination and I do all these vlogs as a citizen journalist, as in I'm not paid. I do everything with an ordinary mini-DV, a PC, Movie Maker and free tools available on the web.
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