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January 29, 2008

Anonymous The Joplin Globe Tue Jan 29, 2008, 08:06 AM CST

By Wally Kennedy

wkennedy@joplinglobe.com

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — When Bruce Davidson’s 13-year-old son, David, asked him to take him to Springfield on Monday to hear former Sen. John Edwards speak at the Teamsters Hall, he knew he had to find a way to get him there.

Wanting to encourage his son’s interest in the democratic process, Davidson said, “There was no way I could say ‘no.’”

Davidson recently moved his family to Branson from Wisconsin. Davidson said that when he was a young man, he had been inspired by a speech he heard Sen. Robert Kennedy give in 1968.

After hearing Edwards, Davidson was asked to comment on what he had heard. He couldn’t. There were tears in his eyes. Regaining his composure, he said: “What impressed me the most about his speech was when he said he hadn’t taken a dime from a lobbyist. John McCain can’t say that.”

His son said: “It was an excellent speech. He said everything that needed to be said.”

The Davidsons were among several hundred people who waited for more than an hour in a standing-room-only hall to hear Edwards, the Democratic underdog in the race for the nomination, give a 15-minute speech that was punctuated by applause and standing ovations.

Attending the rally were representatives of Teamsters Local No. 823 in Joplin.

Jim McCall, president of the local, said: “The Teamsters have not picked anyone to back. We intend to survey the members and principal officers after the primaries. We do back Edwards as much as anybody.

“The one thing we like is that he is totally for labor and working-class people. He got his education on a union income. He wants health care for everybody, good jobs, good wages and good benefits.”

Edwards attracted a diverse crowd of all ages that included teachers, university students, laborers and veterans. One man, wearing a cowboy hat, stood up with a sign that read: “We know the state of the union. That’s why we are here.”

Edwards was introduced by Joe Maxwell, former lieutenant governor of Missouri. Describing Edwards as the man who will stand up for working people, Maxwell said: “It’s our time to stand up to the corporations. It’s our time to stand up to the rich. It’s our time!”

Entering the hall to the song “Our Country” by John Mellencamp, Edwards noted that President Bush would deliver the State of the Union address later Monday and that he most likely would talk about his plan to stimulate the economy.

“But his plan will leave tens of millions of Americans out,” Edwards said. “It will leave out people who work for a living. We need a president who will stand up for you.”

Each time during his speech in which he referred to Bush, the crowd booed and hissed.

Reiterating the central theme of his campaign, Edwards said he comes from a working-class family that “worked to make sure that their children would have a better life and that they would leave this country better than they found it. That is the great responsibility of every generation.”

Edwards asked: “Who is going to fight for you?”

A man in the crowd said: “John Edwards.”

Edwards shot back: “You got that right, brother. It’s central to everything I want to do.”

Edwards then launched into a litany of things that he said are wrong with the country and how he would fix them. He said the richest nation on the planet has “dysfunctional health care.” He said he has proposed a universal health-care plan that would cost $90 billion to $120 billion a year, and would be paid for by removing the tax cuts that he said Bush has given to the rich.

“We’ve got to do something about this public-schools mess called No Child Left Behind,” he said. “We need to treat our teachers with dignity and respect again. Instead of punishing schools that do not do well, we need to give them the resources to do well.”

He said protection of the environment and proactive steps with regard to climate change could create a million new jobs in the United States.

“We want a president who believes you can be patriotic about something other than war,” he said, adding that he would end “this mess of a war in Iraq” in his first year as president.

Colleen Murray, media spokeswoman for the Edwards campaign in Missouri, said about 1,000 people attended the rally. She said Edwards would leave Springfield on Monday night for a rally this morning in Tulsa, Okla. He will make a campaign stop later today in Jefferson City.

Romney visit

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Saturday will be in Southwest Missouri, according to state Rep. Bryan Stevenson, of Webb City, who is working on the campaign of the former Massachusetts governor. He said details are being worked out for Romney to speak in either Joplin or Springfield.