Edwards’ ‘Closing Statement’ Aims to Boost Image

Seeking to sharpen his image as a populist bent on changing the nation’s political system, presidential candidate John Edwards urged fellow Democrats on Saturday to support his bid to reinvent a country he said is now divided into “two Americas” -- one for the rich and powerful and the other for “everybody else.”

Key to the division, the senator from North Carolina said, is the inordinate amount of clout wielded by drug companies, the oil industry and other corporate interests in a political system heavily swayed by money.

“This government and this democracy does not belong to them -- it belongs to you,” Edwards told about 150 people gathered beneath chilly, leaden skies.

Referring to changes in recent cuts in the capital gains tax, he added, “We’re going to end the days when million-dollar investors are sitting by their swimming pools getting their financial returns and

Edwards, a former civil trial lawyer, hoped the speech would spotlight his campaign’s central message; his aides likened it to a “closing statement” as voting nears in the Democratic race. In his remarks, Edwards beseeched voters to join him in trying “to inspire America again, to lift people up, to make the American people believe again.”

The crowd reacted warmly, and for some the 10-minute speech was effective -- a similar response to other Edwards speeches at stops in New Hampshire on Friday and Saturday. But many remained unconvinced that Edwards -- trailing far back in polls here and in Iowa, where caucuses begin the nomination process on Jan. 19 -- could beat Bush, an important factor for Democrats looking to reclaim the White House.

“He looks young, and in these troubled times I think we need people with experience,” said Debora Pignatelli, 56, a former New Hampshire state senator who is backing Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri. “But I think he’s an excellent speaker. He has a great message for the American people.”

Concerns about youth and political inexperience -- one term in the U.S. Senate -- have dogged Edwards from the start of his presidential candidacy. On Saturday, the campaign confronted those issues head-on.

In introducing Edwards, New Hampshire State Sen. Joe Foster pointed out that Edwards, at 50, is older than John Kennedy, Theodore Roosevelt or Bill Clinton when they entered the White House, and is only a year younger than Franklin D. Roosevelt was when he took office in the midst of the Great Depression.

Edwards told the crowd that his own lack of years in Washington was a good thing. Change, he said, will come from the outside, not from within.

“Do you believe that people who have spent most of their lives in politics, or have been in Washington for decades ... will change America?” Edwards asked. “If that’s what you believe, you have plenty of other good candidates to choose from. That is not what I am.”

And, Edwards argued, he spent his legal career challenging corporate clients “on behalf of families just like yours.”

“I am so ready for this fight,” Edwards said. “I have been preparing for this fight my entire life.”

He sought to draw on the legacies of Democratic presidents he said built strong governments during soul-wrenching times. He cited creation of the Social Security system under Franklin Roosevelt’s administration and civil rights gains that evolved from the election of Kennedy, who launched his 1960 presidential campaign 24 years ago from the front of the same Nashua City Hall where Edwards spoke Saturday.

“He came here to talk about hope, to talk about optimism, to talk about the future of America,” Edwards said. “He didn’t come here to talk about anger. He didn’t come here to talk about cynicism, because John Kennedy understood that cynics didn’t build America, optimists built America.”

Although Edwards did not mention any of his rivals for the Democratic nomination, his comment about anger seemed clearly directed at front-runner Howard Dean. Much of the support for the former Vermont governor stems from his fiery criticism of the Bush administration, but Edwards and others trying to stem Dean’s momentum increasingly have argued that a broader message is needed to win in November.

Edwards has proposed mandatory health-care coverage for children from birth; revising the Medicare reform bill passed last year to reduce financial support for the drug and health-care industries while increasing patient access to treatment and medicine; and increasing funding for the “No Child Left Behind” educational package, which he said the Bush administration has not properly funded.

Edwards defends his Senate vote supporting the war with Iraq -- highly unpopular among Democratic voters -- as the correct decision, given what he knew at the time about the threats he believed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein posed.

In several stops, Edwards cut short discussion with voters who challenged him, saying they would just have to disagree. Then he shifted into criticism of the Bush administration’s handling of postwar issues, arguing that the U.S. should share authority there with the United Nations and draw on NATO allies to help secure Iraq’s borders.