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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (73557)	9/28/2004 12:14:51 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 794298

Bush Supporter Stumps Edwards at Town Meeting A friend of mine and fellow Bush supporter Nathaniel Walton, infiltrated a "Town Hall Meeting" at the Lewiston Armory in Maine on Sunday where Senator John Edwards was the featured guest. After rallying across the street in support of Bush Nathaniel and some other College Republicans who had obtained tickets to the event attempted to get in line so they enter and hear what Edwards had to say. They had a little trouble at first: "Upon reaching the door to go in, a group of people waiting in line ahead of us told the initial ticket checker that we supported President Bush and should not be allowed into the event. A higher-ranking campaign official came up to [us], telling us that we could not enter the event because it was at capacity. I asked her if that meant the twenty or so people behind us couldn’t enter as well. They were Kerry-Edwards supporters who had waited some forty-five minutes in line. Realizing the irrationality of her logic, the official let me and my friends in, but not before taking the tickets of my two friends and then disappearing." After finagling their way through the line, Nathaniel's entire group did manage to get in. He described Edwards speech to me, explaining that Edwards opened up with foreign policy themes, "telling the audience how President Bush has alienated our 'allies,' while in nearly the same sentence criticizing him for bringing other nations to the table in talks with North Korea aimed at ending their development of nuclear arms." Edwards then told the crowd that Kerry would lower deficits, create jobs and lower heath care costs – without provided any details as to how Kerry would do those things beyond taxing the "rich." My favorite part of Nathaniel's story was after the question-and-answer period when Senator Edwards began to shake hands with members of the audience. Nathaniel happened to "lucky" enough to come face to face with Edwards. Here is what happened: "I asked Edwards the following question: “Would a Kerry/Edwards Administration end frivolous lawsuits by enacting serious tort reform in this country?” Edwards’ answer was: “Uhh...well…you need to ask Sam over there, he can tell you more about our plan.” I found the disappearance of his trademark smile and sudden uncertainty in an unplanned moment to be extremely revealing." Nathaniel had John Edwards completely stumped. He could not even give an answer to the question. Edwards' background gives him plenty of experience to be able to give some kind of an answer – but the issue is not a winning issue for his ticket and Edwards cracked under pressure. Nathaniel found this rally to be an eye opening experienced, " I was quite taken aback that members of a party that has so sternly criticized the President’s campaign for holding exclusive campaign events would be so eager to take measures to exclude a group of people whose appearance and behavior in no way warranted ejection from one of their events," he told me. He was also amazed at how getting up close and person to Edwards was able to give him a true sense of what Edwards is really like. "He may be a seemingly 'nice guy' with good hair and a friendly smile... but caught off guard on an issue he knows is a huge weakness ... the sunny façade shows its cracks. For Edwards, personal self interest trumps real solutions to the problems facing this country."