In His Own Words

An excerpt from Sen. John Edwards's stump speech:

Let me start by telling you why I am running for president. I feel an enormous personal responsibility to give the people of America a real choice, a real alternative in the election of 2004.

I think the people of America deserve a president who comes from them. My father worked in the mills all his life. My mother's last job was working in the post office. . . . I worked my way through college and law school and then spent 20 years as a lawyer representing the people I'd grown up with . . . and when I started to run for the Senate, I said I was doing it for exactly the same reason. . . . It's exactly the reason I want to be president. I think regular Americans, people like you, are entitled to a champion in the White House . . . people like my father -- he's not an insider; he doesn't have a single lobbyist in Washington -- his hope is the president. . . .

President Bush comes from a very different place. Among other things, his father was president of the United States. I hope we still believe in an America where the son of a mill worker can go toe-to-toe with the son of a president. I know I do. . . .

Today we have a government of the insiders, by the insiders and, unfortunately, for the insiders. Most of America is being left behind. . . . If I'm ever on stage with President Bush, I've got one question to ask the American people: Do you think you're better off than you were four years ago? . . . I've spent 20 years as a lawyer and this is one of the easiest cases I've ever had to argue.

But that's not enough. We have to say what we would do. . . . Short-term, we've got to give the economy a serious shot in the arm. I would take $50 billion at the national level to help the states and local government that are facing, many of them, the worst fiscal crises since World War II. . . . I would give every family in America a $500 refundable tax credit to help them deal with the higher energy costs. . . . Long-term, we have to operate government in a more responsible way. We can reduce the cost of the bureaucracy in Washington by 10 percent over the next 10 years. We have to stop these tax cuts tilted to the top 1 percent of Americans. . . . And protect workers and stop these abuses of CEO pay.

Having been brought up in the South at the time of the civil rights movement, it is so important to me that we move forward with the cause of civil rights. . . . As a member of the Judiciary Committee, I want judges who will enforce our civil rights laws. . . . I feel a personal responsibility to lift up people who every day feel the burden of discrimination. And it is not just civil rights, it is equal rights, it is a woman's right to choose. . . .

We cannot in the name of the war on terrorism and the need for homeland security let people like John Ashcroft take away our lives, our liberties, our freedoms. Those things go to the heart and soul of what makes America great.