John Edwards for President?: ABC News: Edwards Picks Coveted Endorsement Over Obama as 'the Un-Hillary'

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Thursday, November 8, 2007

ABC News: Edwards Picks Coveted Endorsement Over Obama as 'the Un-Hillary'

According to this ABC News story, "Edwards Picked Over Obama as 'the Un-Hillary': Former North Carolina Senator Nabs Coveted Iowa Endorsement":

Iowans for Sensible Priorities, a group seeking to redirect spending from the Pentagon to domestic needs, plans to endorse John Edwards Friday in Des Moines.

The decision to endorse Edwards over Illinois Sen. Barack Obama came down to 'courage versus caution,' according to the group's executive director.

'There's a rhetoric gap with Obama,' executive director Peggy Huppert told ABC News. 'He told me personally:'Trust me. Ideologically, I'm with you.' But people have told him to be afraid of being pushed too far to the left. He doesn't bring up [cuts in Pentagon spending] on his own. He doesn't incorporate it into his speeches. He skirts around it. He talks around the edges. He never gets to the heart of it in strong, bold language.'

Edwards, by contrast, won over the group with his harder edge.

Edwards boosted his chances of winning the endorsement Oct. 26 when Huppert asked him at an Iowa town hall meeting how he would respond to former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the GOP's national front-runner, saying the day before that Democratic support for reducing Pentagon spending amounts to a lack of concern for defeating what Giuliani calls 'the terrorists' war on us.'

'Edwards gave an excellent answer,' said Huppert. 'He said we have to stop buying into their frame which equates spending money on the Pentagon with keeping us safe. He also said we can't have a Democratic candidate who cowers and runs away from this issue.'

'For whatever reason,' she said, 'John Edwards has decided he is going to take this on and he has staked out the position quite convincingly of being the un-Hillary.'

Although Clinton filled out the group's detailed policy questionnaire, she was not among the final two candidates under consideration for the endorsement.

'She didn't answer any questions 'yes' or'no,'' said Huppert. 'She has a refusal to commit to anything.'

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