The Disabled Politico Blog wraps up its profiles of Democratic candidates with John Edwards. Be sure to join the Disaboom crew on January 30 and 31st when we live-blog the Republican and Democratic debates respectively. The action starts at 8PM EST and will be telivised on CNN. But come here, to the Disabled Politico Blog, for debate analysis, wild and wacky comments, hard hitting opinions from disaboom.com members and the occassional funky picture or two of the presidential candidates.
John Edwards (D)
John Edwards was born on June 10, 1953 in Seneca, North Carolina and raised in nearby Robbins, North Carolina, where his father worked as a textile mill floor worker. Edwards was the first person in his family to attend college, matriculating at Clemson University before eventually transferring to North Carolina State. In 1974, He earned his Law Degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.After a short stint practicing law in Nashville, Edwards returned to North Carolina in 1981 and joined the firm of Tharrington, Smith and Hargrove. There he won a series of large, consumer protection lawsuits, including a 25 million dollar product liability suit against Sta-Rite, the manufacturer of a defective pool drain cover that horrifically injured a young girl. For his work in the Sta-Rite case, Edwards was awarded the Association of Trial Lawyers of America’s national award for public service. In 2003 Edwards published Four Trials, a biographical book that focuses on cases from his legal career.In 1998, Edwards ran for the U.S. Senate against incumbent Republican Lauch Faircloth, and won by a margin of 83,000 votes. He served in the Senate until 2003, when he embarked on his first presidential run, winning two state primaries. After withdrawing, he accepted the VP position on Senator John Kerry’s ticket.
Top Issues
Ending Poverty- Edwards has stated that he will increase the minimum wage to at least $9.50 per hour, invest heavily in rural America, strengthen labor laws, enforce workplace protections, and ban abusive pay day loans
Education- Edwards has proposed teacher pay increases, the creation of second chance schools for high school drop outs, doubling the funding of federal magnet schools, and a College for Everyone program that will pay public-college tuition for students who agree to work during their first year at school
End the Genocide In Darfur- Edwards has pledged a commitment to ending the genocide in Darfur, a province of Sudan. His six point plan includes the deployment of 26,000 U.N. peacekeeping forces, further economic sanctions of Sudan’s government, and the establishment of a no-fly zone to cut off supplies to the murderous Janjaweed militia.
On Disabilities- Edwards answered both the AAPD questionnaire and attended the disability forum in New Hampshire. His comprehensive plan for those with disabilities includes connecting those with disabilities to economic opportunity, making education more inclusive, ramping up accessible transportation, and heavily recruiting those with disabilities to employment within the U.S. government. His full platform can be viewed here.
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Other Candidate Profiles:
Democrats: Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Barack Obama.
Republicans: Mitt Romney, John McCain, Mike Huckabee, Rudy Giuliani
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