National Public Radio Day to Day Transcript

February 26, 2004 Thursday

HEADLINE: Senator John Edwards discusses issues he thinks are important in this year's presidential contest

ANCHORS: ALEX CHADWICK

BODY:
ALEX CHADWICK, host:

From NPR News in Los Angeles and Slate magazine online, this is DAY TO DAY. I'm Alex Chadwick.

Coming up, a DAY TO DAY guide to what is so super about Super Tuesday. That's next Tuesday, one of the biggest days for the Democratic presidential candidates.

But first, tonight in Los Angeles, those candidates meet for a televised debate. Some campaigning is going on as well-the leader, Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, visiting a grocery strikers' picket line, for instance. He'll shake hands and get on local and maybe national TV.

(Soundbite of cheering and applause)

CHADWICK: Yesterday, I watched a similar event for North Carolina Senator John Edwards. He's trailing Senator Kerry, but nonetheless appears to be the only other real choice the Democrats have left. This was out east of Los Angeles at Pomona College, where an Edwards student group had invited their man to speak, and hundreds of people were waiting for him in an old college ballroom. This is a private college. It costs a lot of money. But the mix of kids didn't look rich. There was a slight 19-year-old from the nearby town of El Monte. He said his name was Richard Tran.

Why are you supporting Mr. Edwards?

Mr. RICHARD TRAN (College Student): Well, Edwards, he fights for equality, he fights for the people in the lower classes. He fights for people like me. I worked at sweatshops myself. I lost part of my childhood to sweatshops. And Edwards makes sure huge corporations don't take advantage of people like me. And that's why I'm voting for him.

CHADWICK: You're saying you worked in sweatshop yourself when you were a kid?

Mr. TRAN: Yes, I did, for...

CHADWICK: And what did you do?

Mr. TRAN: I made the zippers for the pants and the clothing. So I made part of the zippers. At times, I put the buttons on clothing. But basically every day after school, my parents took me and my sisters to sweatshops so they could make ends meet.

CHADWICK: And where was this?

Mr. TRAN: This was in El Monte. The sweatshop was closed down. So...

CHADWICK: Here in California?

Mr. TRAN: Yes. So I have a personal investment in Mr. Edwards. He grew up in a mill town, he worked with his dad at the mill. So he knows the type of experiences that I had to go through.

(Soundbite of cheering and applause)

Unidentified Man: Senator John Edwards!

CHADWICK: When the senator entered, he greeted people in front, and then started speaking. He went for 25 minutes, all on a single topic: fighting poverty.

Senator JOHN EDWARDS (Democratic Presidential Candidate): People said it was hard, too hard, and too impossible to go the moon. But we did. People said we would never cure polio, but we did. And people say we will never lift millions of Americans out of poverty, but I'm here to tell you today, together, you and I are going to do it.

(Soundbite of cheers and applause)

CHADWICK: After Senator Edwards' speech, DAY TO DAY waited in line, last in line, actually, with other reporters from local TV and radio. Everyone asked about gay marriage. The senator is against gay marriage, but also against the constitutional ban that President Bush called for two days ago. Then, finally, we got our chance.

Senator, is there some number of states that you need to win next Tuesday in order to stay in the race?

Sen. EDWARDS: No. What I need to do Tuesday is continue to win delegates. Every primary that's occurred up until now, we have continued to win delegates. We've done very well in these primaries. And we need to continue to give voters a choice between John Edwards and John Kerry, and we need to continue to win delegates in the process.

CHADWICK: But you can't keep finishing second unless you're perhaps interested in being number two on the ticket.

Sen. EDWARDS: No, here's the problem with thinking about it. These are not winner-take-all states. It's not like the Electoral College where, if you win, you get all the votes. Here, if there's a close contest and you finish second, like in Wisconsin-Senator Kerry and I finished very close to each other, and we got almost exactly the same number of delegates. And this is a long-term process for me. I intend to be the nominee.

CHADWICK: You have criticized NAFTA quite a lot in the last month and-two months of campaigning, but in an interview with The New York Times a couple of days ago you said that there were elements of NAFTA that you liked, that you thought NAFTA was an important agreement. So it's not something that you would want to try to do away with?

Sen. EDWARDS: Oh, no. I've never said I would do away with it. What I have always said is exactly the same thing. People characterize it different ways. What we need-the country needs trade. America needs trade and the world needs trade. But it has to be done in a way that's good for American economy and good for American workers. And what that means is having labor and environmental standards in the text of these agreements and having a serious enforcement mechanism. NAFTA, in its present form, does not have that.

CHADWICK: So is there much difference between your position and that of Senator Kerry?

Sen. EDWARDS: We have a very different record on this. I mean, we both voted for PNTR for China. I opposed NAFTA. I was not in the Congress when it passed. He voted for it. I voted against the Singapore trade agreement, he voted for it. I voted against the Chilean trade agreement, he voted for it. I voted against the African trade agreement, he voted for it. I voted against the Caribbean trade agreement, he voted for it. I voted against fast-track authority for this president, he voted for it. I mean, there's a very different record.

CHADWICK: Let me just note that you also voted to go to war in Iraq. You voted against the $87 billion support bill. The Republicans have been accusing Senator Kerry, who they perceive as the front-runner, of being a big flip-flopper. I wonder if you're not vulnerable to that same charge. And how do you respond to that?

Sen. EDWARDS: I voted against the $87 billion because this president has a failed policy in Iraq. He is not doing the things that need to be done to make this work: internationalizing it; bringing NATO in to provide security; bringing the international community, the United Nations in to oversee the transitional government. This was a place where I had to say, and John Kerry had to say, where we stand on going forward with that policy. I said no. I think it was the right thing to do.

CHADWICK: Thank you, Senator.

Sen. EDWARDS: Thank you.

CHADWICK: Thank you.

Then he was gone, propelled on to the next event by a coterie of staffers. The trade agreements he rattled off, the preferred trading status for China, the president's authority to more easily make a new trade deal-all are free-trade issues. That's one difference between Senators Edwards and Kerry. Edwards is less of a free-trader, but still not ready to abandon NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement. Maybe that will make a difference in five days on Super Tuesday; maybe no. But Tuesday is the next big political event, the day that many Democrats think will be decisive.

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