Elizabeth Edwards: John is top advocate for women
On a daylong campaign swing in Iowa, Elizabeth Edwards said Tuesday her husband is the stronger advocate for women than rival Hillary Clinton.
Edwards, who made stops in Iowa City, Muscatine and Davenport, met enthusiastic crowds along the way and she repeatedly told people that John Edwards is committed to helping women on a host of concerns, from equal pay to housing to poverty to health care.
“No one is a match for John,” she told about 75 people in Muscatine.
Edwards was accompanied by Kate Michelman, the former president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, who endorsed Edwards.
In a brief interview Tuesday, Mrs. Edwards suggested Clinton wasn’t placing enough importance on women’s issues, including health care.
“If this were a truly important issue she’d be talking about it from the first day. I thought this was an important issue to her. I mean, it was in her husband’s administration so I would have expected it to be something she said the first day,” Edwards said in Muscatine. “When she doesn’t do it until later, doesn’t it tell you about how she will govern?”
Edwards was responding to questions about a Salon.com article published Tuesday in which she raised similar concerns.
John Edwards has already laid out a comprehensive health care plan, while Clinton has outlined elements of her plan.
Aides say a full rollout is due later.
“If women’s issues aren’t important enough to talk about on day one doesn’t it tell you something?” Edwards added in Muscatine. “(For) John, these issues were important enough to start talking about them on day one and that tells you how John would govern.”
Ann Lewis, a senior adviser to Clinton, responded that the New York senator has a “lifelong record of leadership on issues important to women,” including equal pay, health care and education.
She said Clinton made a speech Tuesday about women’s reproductive rights.
“She is leading decisively with female voters because they know she has the strength and experience to make a real difference in their lives,” Lewis said.
Edwards and Clinton, along with U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., are considered in the top tier among Democratic candidates in Iowa, the leadoff caucus state. And women are considered a key constituency here.
Michelman, in remarks in Muscatine, said it’s exciting to have a woman running, but added, “we have worked too long to make gender the reason we vote.”
In Davenport, Mrs. Edwards told about 200 people “bold ideas” are needed after two terms of President Bush.
“We need a great big ladder to get out of this hole and John has that ladder,” she said.
Edwards pitched her husband’s plan to add a million public housing vouchers, called for a crackdown on payday loans and credit card abuses. And she rejected the idea that Democrats should pursue impeachment of the president or vice president because it would tie up Congress and “the result we want will probably elude us.”
Edwards, who drew more people than even some presidential candidates, won sustained applause in both Muscatine and Davenport for a recent telephone call she made to a television talk show challenging conservative commentator Ann Coulter.
“We need to stand up to name calling and negative things,” said Marilyn Weber, of Muscatine, who complimented Edwards for the call.
Ed Tibbetts can be contacted at
(563) 383-2327 or etibbetts@qctimes.com. Comment on this article at qctimes.com.