CBN News Speaks with John Edwards
By Robin Mazyck
CBNNews.com
November 27, 2007
CBNNews.com - MANCHESTER - It's a cold, rainy day in Manchester, NH. The temperature is 41 degrees and about 50 people are lined up, waiting patiently outside the New Horizons - a soup kitchen, food pantry, and homeless shelter.
CBN News followed John Edwards in New Hampshire Monday.
Inside, the presidential hopeful handed out bananas, oranges, and lemons to people as they fill boxes and bags with fresh meat, fruits, vegetables, bread, and other food.
Shelly is grateful for the chance to feed her three boys who are four, six, and nine.
"I've come here before to get food," she said.
And the fact that Edwards is handing out food really doesn't matter to her. She knows that her vote is extremely important, but she says she's undecided.
Edwards is not a stranger to helping those in need, and he's no stranger to being in need.
"I spent most of my life fighting for the kind of people I grew up with in mill towns across the South -- people left behind who don't have a voice, who no one speaks for, who aren't in positions of power, money, and influence," Edwards said in a recent interview with CBN News.
"My whole life has been about the same thing. I was born into nothing," he said.
Make no mistake about it, the trial lawyer and former North Carolina Senator says he worked hard to get where he is today.
"I worked hard, I make no apologizes for having been successful. Nobody gave it to me," he told CBN News. "I worked my rear end off, and I fought for it like a lot of Americans. I'm not different than a lot of Americans who have done the same thing."
Stumping in New Hampshire
Monday was a busy day for Edwards as he traveled the state trying to shore up support.
He started his day at 9 a.m. with a radio appearance on New Hampshire Public radio.
About an hour later he dashed off to a Town Hall Meeting. From there he went to the food pantry, then to a Roundtable with Manchester teachers and then to two more town hall meetings before calling it a night.
And these visits are crucial for Edwards, who ranks third in the Granite State.
"… the plan is to do well in Iowa, do well in New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nevada -- the four early states," Edwards told CBN News. "And I think if you do well in those four states, you're in a great position going into February 5."
At a Town Hall event in Nashua, NH, Edwards displayed his skills as a trial lawyer and passionately explained how he would make changes on Capitol Hill.
A crowd of about 150 people turned out to hear him speak in the student center of Daniel Webster College.
"They are pushing exactly the same agenda," he said as he referred to Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. "Does anybody really believe that if we trade a crowd of corporate Republicans for corporate Democrats that there's going to be big change in Washington? It's a lie," he said.
And Edwards didn't stop there. He also touched on his plan for universal health care, his recipe for an affordable college education, and what he says is needed in the next President.
"What you care about is having somebody who will stand up. Somebody who will fight for you. … That's what you care about. That's what you need in a President," he said.
Tuesday, Edwards heads to New York.
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