If the Nevada Democratic Debate was marked by a distinct lack of fireworks, the first half hour of the South Carolina Debate has been a Fourth of July Spectacular.

Obama was itching for a fight from the jump, jabbing Hillary over NAFTA and economic stimulus in the first 15 minutes before firing the big guns — accusing both Sen Clinton and President Clinton of lying about his Iraq record and twisting his line about admiring Ronald Reagan to attack him.

When Clinton said she disagreed with the Republican ideas Obama seemed to be praising, Obama took exception. After a brief shouting match, Obama lashed out — telling Hillary that while he was fighting those Republican ideas as a community organizer in Chicago, “you were a corporate lawyer sitting on the board at Wal-Mart.”

Clinton fired back with a low blow of her own, saying “I was fighting against those ideas when you were practicing law and representing your contributor, Rezko” — the indicted Chicago slum-lord who was one of Obama’s biggest political benefactors.

Meanwhile, poor John Edwards was left asking Wolf whether there were just two people at the debate. Unfortunately for him, the answer is only two with a chance of winning the nomination. But he’s having an excellent debate playing the spoiler, needling Clinton and (mostly) Obama — and often coming off like the one grown-up at the kiddie table.

There’s more to come… as Senator Clinton said, “we’re just getting warmed up.”

Despite his distant third place finish in the Nevada caucuses, John Edwards says he is the only Democratic presidential candidate who can beat all Republicans in a general election—including potential GOP frontrunner, John McCain.

“I think it’s important for us to have somebody run against McCain who can beat him,” Edwards told reporters outside a restaurant in Winnsboro, South Carolina, on Sunday. “And national polls show that I’m the one who beats John McCain in the general election.”

In addition to mentioning polls that find he is best suited to stand against a Republican next November, Edwards raised the issue of campaign finance reform. Edwards—whose campaign is publicly funded—has long prided himself in his refusal to accept money from Washington lobbyists, reasoning that one cannot challenge corporate powers and “bring change to Washington” if he or she has taken lobbyist money. Edwards has called for campaigns to be publicly financed, and often tells voters, “we’re going to have an election, not an auction,” as he travels around the country.

While some have doomed Edwards’ candidacy due to lack of funds (compared to senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, who have each raised over 100 million), Edwards says his stand on campaign financing would work to his advantage—particularly in a race against McCain, who has also sought to reduce the influence of money in the campaign process.

“This is a guy who’s made central to his political life campaign finance reform,” Edwards said of McCain. “It seems to me we ought to be putting somebody up against him who’s never taken money from special interest PACs or Washington lobbyists. Between the three of us, that’s me.”

done

After a decisive loss in Nevada on Saturday, John Edwards said he hopes the old saying, “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas,” proves to be true.

Edwards placed a distant third in the Nevada caucuses—earning only 4 percent of the vote and acquiring zero delegates. Clinton won 51 percent of the electorate, while Obama received 45 percent.

Addressing reporters outside a diner in Winnsboro, South Carolina, on Sunday, Edwards said, “I got my butt kicked,” and attributed his loss to the millions of dollars spent by his rivals in the state.

“I think the other candidates spent enormous amounts of money and we didn’t,” he said. “It was a caucus process. They were there for a long time organizing.”

But Edwards spent more days in Nevada than his Democratic rivals—he visited the state 17 times. Obama came 12 times and Clinton 8 times. Though the Edwards campaign never predicted he would win the state, his advisers remained optimistic that he would finish competitively.

Edwards also criticized the national media for representing the Democratic presidential campaign as a two-person race—focusing most of their attention on the “two celebrity candidates,” senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

Despite his loss, he assured voters that he is in the race “for the long haul” and that 47 states have yet to be heard from.

“I’ve gotten up, dusted myself off, and I’m going back to work,” Edwards said. “I’m fighting for what I believe in.”

done

Addressing a crowd of several hundred supporters at a rally in Las Vegas on Friday, John Edwards denounced an ad running in Nevada by a national labor union supporting Barack Obama.

The pro-Obama radio ad, airing on two Spanish stations and sponsored by a group called UNITE HERE (the parent union of Culinary Workers’ 266 that has endorsed Obama), calls Hillary Clinton “shameless” and says “she does not respect our people.”

Edwards condemned the ad—describing it as “malicious”—and criticized Obama for not calling on the group to stop running it.

“He should speak up,” Edwards told the crowd. “If he really means what he says—and this is not just talk—he should speak up and denounce this kind of divisive politics.”

Though Obama has not publicly addressed the ad as of yet, his campaign spokesman, Bill Burton, told reporters “it’s not our ad,” and that “if the Clinton campaign has questions, they should contact the union that sponsored” it.

Edwards took exception to the ad, he says, in part because Obama had previously criticized him for a television ad that ran on his behalf in Iowa by a 527 group—an ad the Senator said was “positive” and did not seek to slander his opponents. While he publicly spoke out against it at the time, Edwards said he did not have the legal authority to directly communicate with the individuals running it.

During Friday’s Las Vegas rally, Edwards seized the opportunity to address Nevada union members directly: “Regardless of who your political leadership chose to support or endorse,” he said, “nobody will fight for you and the right to organize and the right to collectively bargain like I will.”

“Let me say this very clearly,” he added at the end of his speech, “vis-à-vis Senator Obama, I will not divide America. I will unite America when I’m President of the United States.”

done

In Tuesday night’s Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas, the three candidates—Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and Barack Obama—clashed over the issue of nuclear power and what to do about Yucca Mountain, a national repository for nuclear waste that is opposed by many Nevada voters.

The dispute began when Clinton said that Edwards voted in support of the nuclear waste facility, while she had “consistently and persistently been against” it. She also claimed that one of Obama’s supporters—the Exelon Corporation—was involved in funding the project.

In response to Clinton’s remarks, Edwards implied that he had changed his decision based on new scientific information and forged documentation that had emerged regarding the waste dump. He added that, unlike Senator Obama and Senator Clinton, he is completely opposed to the building of more nuclear power plants—a point he so often makes when addressing voters on the campaign trail. Edwards said that Obama is “open to the possibility of additional power plants” and that Clinton has said she is “agnostic” on the subject.

Obama defended himself, saying that he has long been a critic of Yucca Mountain, yet added that the country should “create a menu of energy options” in handling the storage of nuclear waste and “see where the science and the technology and the entrepreneurship of the American people take us.”

The debate over nuclear power will undoubtedly influence Nevada voters, particularly those who are undecided, in the state’s caucuses on Saturday. Polls indicate that an overwhelming number of Nevadans, both Republicans and Democrats, strongly oppose federal plans to dump the nation’s nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain—and believe it to be a key issue in deciding which presidential candidate to caucus for.

Senator Clinton thanked the people of Michigan for her victory in the Michigan primary yesterday — a slightly hollow one, since neither Barack Obama nor John Edwards were actually on the ballot.

On a conference call on economic issues with MI Gov Jennifer Granholm, Clinton said “I said repeatedly I will not turn my back on Michigan.” Calling herself a “strong partner” with the governor and the people of the state, she said “as president, I will do everything I can to help reverse the economic challenges Michigan has been coping with pretty much alone,” adding “I am personally humbled and grateful for the support I’ve received today.”

Clinton says she’s not concerned about the strong black vote against her in yesterday’s primary, saying “I am very committed to running a broad-based campaign reaching out to every community.” She added, “the support I showed in Michigan is very gratifying to me, but there’s a lot of hard work to be done.”

(more…)

The last debate before the NV Caucuses was something of a letdown for those looking for fiery back-and-forth. There were no real winners and no real losers, as the candidates stuck to the high road after a week spent battling over racial issues. With the race here very close, and no one really sure what the impact of this caucus will be on the overall race, everyone seemed to be playing it safe.

But there were a few good moments for Sen Clinton, who resumed the confident, cool, collected debate persona she maintained when she was the clear frontrunner last summer.

She took full advantage of Senator Obama’s admission that he’s not much for managing bureaucracy, arguing that the next president will have to be an effective chief operating officer to keep the country safe.
And she scored points against Obama and Edwards on the issue of depositing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, one of the key issues in the state (read the campaign’s research memo attacking her two rivals on the issue after the jump).

But it says something about just how interesting this debate was when what the campaign called her “Video Moment of the Debate” was a short riff on George Bush’s energy policy. Check it out below.

(more…)

Speaking before a predominantly African-American congregation at the Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Sumter, South Carolina, John Edwards criticized Hillary Clinton and her husband for comments they made last week just before the New Hampshire primary vote.

“I’m gonna say I was troubled recently to see a suggestion that real change came not through the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, but through a Washington politician,” Edwards said. “I fundamentally disagree with that. Those who believe that real change starts with Washington politicians have been in Washington too long and are living in a fairy tale.”

Though he did not mention Hillary Clinton by name, Edwards sought to address a statement she recently made, which some thought gave President Lyndon B. Johnson more credit than Martin Luther King for civil rights laws. Edwards’ use of “fairy tale” seemed to be a gibe at Bill Clinton’s “fairy tale” characterization of Obama’s Iraq War position.

The Clintons have since defended their remarks, claiming they were purposely distorted by rival campaigns for political gain—and were not intended to depreciate Dr. King’s influence or degrade Barack Obama.

In his address to the congregation, Edwards praised Obama for his political achievements.

“This may come as a surprise to some of you coming from another presidential candidate,” Edwards said, “but as someone who grew up in the segregated South, I feel an enormous amount of pride when I see the success that Senator Barack Obama is having in this campaign.”

Edwards’ support of Obama continued: “The hopes that both Senator Obama and I have for this nation and this country that we love so much, these are not false hopes. They’re real hopes.”

At a press conference following Edwards’ speech, a reporter asked if he was running for Barack Obama’s Vice President instead of the Democratic nominee.

“I’m running for the Democratic nomination,” Edwards said in response, adding with a smile, “I think maybe he should be running for my VP.”

done

Standing in a hall where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once held meetings at the height of the Civil Rights movement, John Edwards addressed issues of racial inequality to a crowd of South Carolinians who gathered to hear him speak at the Penn Center in St. Helena Island.

“Race plays an enormous role in the economic conditions of Americans,” Edwards told the audience. “We can pretend it’s not true but decade after decade of slavery followed by decade after decade of segregation, followed by decade after decade of discrimination has an impact. It has an effect.”

The senator recited statistics to illustrate such disparities, saying that blacks “average about ten percent of the net worth of white families.”

He then focused his attention on health care problems that are endemic to the black community—such as heart disease and diabetes—and stressed the need for a universal health care plan that covers all Americans.

“You are more likely to have serious health care problems,” he said of African Americans, “and less likely to have health care coverage.”

Edwards has visited his native South Carolina more times than the other Democratic candidates. A comeback victory here, after his third place finish in New Hampshire, would be possible if he wins over the African American voters, who make up nearly half of the state’s electorate. According to exit polls from the 2004 Democratic presidential election, Edwards won 37% of the black vote in South Carolina in securing that state’s primary victory.

done

John Edwards’ Mainstreet Express began its four-day “Bringing it Home” bus tour across South Carolina on Friday to push the Senator’s populist message of strengthening the middle class—and to rally support in a state where he will need to do well in order to continue running a competitive campaign.

He also launched a new 30-second television ad titled, “Mill,” which stresses his populist campaign theme and features Edwards speaking about his upbringing in rural Carolina mill towns: “the men and women who worked in that mill with my father were worth every bit as much as the man who owned that mill.”

The ad also attempts to connect with African-American voters, who comprise roughly half of the electorate in South Carolina, and whose vote will prove critical on the day of the primary. Almost every scene in the ad shows black people listening to or cheering for Edwards alongside other white supporters. It is a demographic other presidential contenders have already begun to court—particularly Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton—in the hopes of securing a primary victory.

Edwards is scheduled to hold a town hall meeting at the historic Penn Center on St. Helena Island later today—a site that once operated as a school for freed slaves after the Civil War and later as a training site and retreat center for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Below is John Edwards’ “Mill” ad: