"Edwards Goes Courting in New Hampshire"

The Caucus (NY Times political blog):

LACONIA, N.H., – Besides delivering his usual message on drug companies and universal health care, former Senator John Edwards proved agile at fielding questions tossed out by New Hampshire voters today.

As befits the unscripted nature of many campaign events, he was asked about a variety of topics, from the whereabouts of the Iraqi political figure Ahmed Chalabi, (he didn’t know) to what Tiger Woods should contribute to Social Security, to whether he supports mining on the moon for energy independence.

At Mr. Edwards’s first stop in Laconia, a man asked about Social Security, saying that the golf star Tiger Woods earns millions in endorsements and would be taxed only on a small portion of that money.

Mr. Edwards said he favors lifting the cap on how much income is taxed for Social Security — now $97,000. “That means that Tiger Woods would be paying social security tax on his income,” he said.

Another man, Howard Epstein, asked Mr. Edwards whether he supported nuclear fusion in the context of mining on the moon.

“You are over my head now,” said Mr. Edwards in a frank response that may very well have been shared by audience members who were not science-minded. “You are asking me if I would support what?”

Mr. Epstein described the process, then suggested that Mr. Edwards search for it on Google.

“I will be glad to take a look at that,” Mr. Edwards said.

Mr. Edwards spoke to about 200 people in the cafeteria of Laconia High School in Belknap County, which has traditionally mostly voted Republican. He also appeared at a school in Concord and a residential care home in Bedford.

In four days of campaigning here this week, he is trying to close the gap in the polls between himself and his Democratic rivals for the nomination. According to a poll last week by St. Anselm College’s New Hampshire Institute of Politics, 14 percent of the people polled said they would choose Mr. Edwards; while 43 percent would choose Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and 22 percent Senator Barack Obama.

At Laconia High School, Mr. Edwards called for better controls on television advertising by drug companies, saying there should be a two-year moratorium on ads when a new prescription drug is introduced into the market to ensure that it is safe.

“The next president needs to deal with this issue,” he said. “We need to ensure we have real truth in advertising, so that salesmanship is not trumping the facts.”

His proposal was part of broader remarks about ending the influence of lobbyists on government policy, a theme he has touched on consistently during his campaign. He said lobbyists for drug and insurance companies were preventing a universal health care program from being implemented.

“They got billions of dollars invested in seeing that nothing changes,” he said. “This is the great moral test of our generation.”

When he mentioned the Medicare prescription drug law, there were grumblings from the audience.

“Correct response,” he said. “I mean you want to talk about a mess. It’s a mess because it was written by lobbyists for drug companies.”


In Bedford, he was questioned closely by Dave Tiffany, who described himself as an activist who has been to 24 campaign events where he says he “bird-dogs candidates” on the Iraq war issue.

Mr. Edwards said that he would withdraw all American combat troops in Iraq except for those needed to protect the U.S. embassy, and that he was against having any permanent bases in the country.

The answer was satisfactory to Mr. Tiffany, who shook Mr. Edwards hand on the way out, and said: “You always want to know more, but I am against American bases, which made me happy about his remarks.”