"Edwards says he has better track record than Obama"

Nashua Telegraph (NH):

NEWMARKET – Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards said he's a better choice than primary rival Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., to battle special interests blocking reform on health care, climate change and other issues.

Edwards said it takes a fighter like himself, rather than a self-described unifier like Obama to break the logjam on Capitol Hill where lobbyists write the laws or block passage of meaningful change.

"I don't think you can compromise with the entrenched interests in Washington. They are too powerful," Edwards said after a town-hall-style forum at the Stone Church in Newmarket.

On Monday, Edwards told a New York Times reporter in Iowa that Obama's view was a "fantasy."

Edwards said as a trial lawyer, one-term North Carolina senator and advocate for the poor, he's battled the establishment.

"You've got to take them on. I've done this my entire, adult life," Edwards said.

But Obama told The Associated Press on Tuesday the tough talk from Edwards doesn't match his record in the Senate.

"I'm happy to put my track record next to John's," Obama said. "Barack Obama has the strongest record of fighting special interests and bringing people together to forge real solutions," Obama's New Hampshire spokesman Reid Cherlin said.

Edwards admitted to the 100 citizens at the forum that he, too, has fought cynicism that the system can't change.

"I've been as guilty as everyone. It's easy to turn your head and say this is just the way it is. These powerful groups, these powerful interests, money and powering interests, they have this power and there is nothing we can do about it," Edwards began. "I don't think we are willing to do that."

On Iraq, Edwards said, unlike Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., that within nine months of taking office he would remove all combat troops, and have no combat missions or permanent bases in the country.

"There are absolutely clear choices for voters in this election," Edwards said. "If you believe what Senator Clinton believes, then you should vote for her."

Clinton has not commented on permanent bases in Iraq other than to say she is opposed to a "permanent occupation" in Iraq. Clinton would leave combat troops to train the Iraqi police and military and hunt out Al Qaida and offers no date for withdrawal of all troops.

"He's a far cry from the John Edwards of 2004 who rose to prominence by decrying personal attacks against other Democrats. Despite his rhetoric today, Sen. Edwards has repeatedly voted against the interests of family farms, advanced multiple positions on combat missions in Iraq and has been far more hawkish on Iran than he would like voters in New Hampshire to know," Kathleen Strand, Clinton's New Hampshire spokeswoman, said.