EDWARDS: POISE AND INTELLIGENCE IN IOWA

Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards handled a difficult question last Friday night when an elderly man in the audience made odd and racist comments regarding Edwards’ fellow candidate, Barrack Obama.

According to MSNBC the incident took place in Elkader, Iowa when Edwards began taking questions from a crowd of around one hundred people. When the elderly man made some cryptic remarks about “a certain fella” who was found not guilty for two murders in California, Edwards asked the man to clarify his remarks. It soon became apparent that the man was referring to the O.J. Simpson trial and stated his belief that the all black jury had found Simpson not guilty as a form of ‘payback.’

The man then went on to imply that a presidential administration of Barrack Obama would somehow promote black ‘payback’ against whites in America. Behind Obama, the man claimed, stood Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and Oprah Winfrey who would urge Obama to use his power for ‘payback.’

With his charm and trademark intelligence Edwards stood up to the man and stated that as president he would “create the kind of opportunities for African-Americans that all Americans are entitled to.” Then, directly addressing the man’s racist rant, Edwards said, “Instead of focusing on what happened to O.J., what I want to do is focus on what I see as the underlying causes of those things, poverty in America, lack of health care, lack of opportunity…”

Once again Edwards hits the nail on the head. It’s the very real problems of class inequality that need to be addressed in this country, not merely its most dramatic symptoms. By stating simply what he believed and refusing to be drawn into the man’s racist diatribe, Edwards once again proves his ability to effectively communicate his vision for America.