a dream or a song: John Edwards: America Rising

The Washington Post continued their series on the Presidential front runners with a focus on John Edwards, and though a few of the articles seemed horribly biased against him I did enjoy the stories of John growing up in Robbins
Beyond Run of The Mill:

The rich-lawyer label rankles a little, though not enough for him to abandon the trappings that he has worked so hard to obtain. "What I want to say to people is 'Well, if I hadn't been successful, would that make me better qualified to be president?' " he asks.
You can never forget where you came from," he says more than once, and friends from the old days insist he is, at his core, still one of them.
"I've known that man over 40 years, and he's the real deal," says the Rev. John L. Frye Jr., pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Gastonia, N.C., and one of Edwards's best boyhood friends. "I don't hear him saying anything different than the interests he truly has in his heart. I don't have any kind of disconnect."
[snip]
When John was born, on June 10, 1953, Wallace Edwards was making about 85 cents an hour at the Seneca mill. The family lived frugally, in a small, pink company house. "You just wouldn't believe how careful I had to be with the money," Bobbie says.
"She worked, too," Wallace adds.
She nods. "Every job I could get," including millwork. "I would fold sheets on the second shift."
But, she makes clear, "my children never suffered." Clothes were clean and pressed, and bills were paid on time. "I had to cook -- eating out was never an option -- but we had a good meal," she says. She doesn't cook mashed potatoes and gravy anymore, she says, "because I used to do it two or three times a week."
They describe their struggles matter-of-factly, without any sense of indignation. It is John Edwards who recounts the sting of watching his parents budget every penny. He has vivid memories of a rare family outing to a restaurant one Sunday after church, when he was 9 or 10 years old.
"The place was packed and I was picking out what I wanted to eat, and my father said, 'We have to leave.' And I said, 'What?,' and he said, 'We have to leave. I can't pay these prices.' We were already seated, and I remember how red-faced I was leaving. I also felt bad for my father, he was such a proud man."
Edwards spent his first semester of college living in WestPoint Stevens's Utica Mill village in South Carolina. It was far removed from the frat parties and drinking games that other 18-year-olds were experiencing. He and his grandmother had a simple routine.
"We would get up in the morning -- it was one of those little houses in the mill village and the only source of heat was the wood heater in the middle of the house -- and we would start the stove and she'd cook me breakfast," he recalls. He would drive the eight or nine miles to campus, for classes and football practice, and return to his grandmother's for meals.

Seems like John was too busy on trying to better himself and improve his life to engage in youthful mistakes like trying cocaine, unlike a certain someone.

From Kornblut's article entitled "Holding His Own"

Yet in a field of compelling biographies, Edwards has held his own. Alongside the most formidable female candidate and African American candidate in history, Edwards is running as the "son of a millworker," as he so often tells crowds about his populist roots, but also the father of a son who died in a car crash at age 16 and the husband of a woman with breast cancer. When his wife, Elizabeth, found out early this year that her cancer had returned, the couple held a news conference near their home in Chapel Hill, N.C., to make a surprise announcement: He would stay in the race. Many had expected him to quit.

That perseverance has become a hallmark of his candidacy; the Edwards campaign also took on a throw-caution-to-the-wind quality that many of his supporters admired

Still, Edwards has faced challenges of his own, namely "the three H's" -- his expensive haircut, his hedge fund work after the 2004 election, and his sprawling homestead in North Carolina, all seemingly at odds with his regular-guy persona and progressive agenda.

What I don't understand is : is working hard and succeeding now a bad thing? Is seeing how your parents struggled to provide for you and your family and not wanting that for your children now a bad thing or hypocritical? Is wanting to help everyone rise or give them the opportunity to succeed incompatible with being successful yourself? When someone who has benefited from economic inequality speaks out against that system shouldn't that carry more weight than if someone who hasn't appears to be disgruntled? Would people even listen, would he still be able to run for President if he was poor? Poor people don't have audiences and failure in our society is never valued. In the words of one questioner in the Post Q&A "Has being financially successful become a negative now in American society for some people?"
That whole view of him as phony just makes no sense to me. I thought hard work leading to success was a myth woven into the fabric of not only America, but also capitalism and the Protestant Work Ethic.
Especially considering how exactly John made himself comfortable; sure he was a trial lawyer but his clients were those who had been wronged by corporations or those in power. I find nothing inconsistent in his history- he always seems to be working for what is right and for "the little man" or the "regular guy"

and I think in one of the articles they mentioned something about Edwards "playing his own race card" by saying he's the only Democratic candidate who can win in the South, and they twisted his 50 State strategy to imply he's saying that Southerners wouldn't vote for a half black guy or a woman. Umm no, it's just that Southerners are really a people of themselves and proud of their values and their native sons. And quick; name the last Democratic candidate not from the south to be elected President. Exactly, which is why John Edwards is the most electable candidate and the one that most frightens Republican strategists

Let's focus on the positive and the future of America

Des Moines, Iowa – Today, as the campaign kicked-off its "Main Street Express" bus tour in Des Moines, Senator John Edwards delivered new remarks relating the challenges and triumphs of his own life to those the country faces right now, and made the case that in the face of powerful interests holding the country back, we will right the wrongs and make our nation the way we want it to be. During the eight-day tour, Edwards will discuss his plans to stand up to the special interests on Wall Street and help hard-working families on Main Street.

"I grew up in a family where my grandmother walked to work at the mill every day wearing her apron. My grandfather, who was partially paralyzed, hauled rolls of cloth using one arm. My dad worked in those mills for 36 years, my mom worked too – all of them for one reason – to give us a chance to rise up and have a better life.

"That's the greatness of America – the promise that every generation will give its children the chance to rise higher, dream bigger, live greater. I took the chances my parents gave me and spent my life fighting to make sure that people just like the people I grew up with had a real chance in the world. When indifferent, irresponsible corporations knocked them down, I was there to help them rise up.

"And that's what drives me now. When I talk about the Two Americas, this is what I mean – the very wealthiest and most powerful have manipulated our government for their own ends. They use their wealth and their power to keep themselves wealthy and powerful at the expense of everyone else. And when they do that, they're holding America back.

"But that's about to change. You can feel it here in Iowa. Because America can't be held back. Because America belongs to us.

"When we face obstacles, you know what we do? We get up. We rise up. We right wrongs and we make our nation the way we want it to be. That's what's happening in this election. That's what's happening here in Iowa. America is rising.

"When we lift 37 million Americans out of poverty – that's America Rising. When we guarantee universal health care for every man, woman, and child in America – that's America Rising. When we stop reckless trade deals that send American jobs overseas and create great jobs here – that's America Rising. When we can look James Lowe in the eye and say with conviction, what you lived through will never happen again in our America – that's America Rising."

Tuesday, the "Main Street Express" makes stops in Clinton, Davenport and Muscatine. Wednesday, Edwards will hold events in Iowa City, Grinnell and then back in Des Monies. Thursday, he'll participate in the Des Moines Register Presidential Debate in Johnston, Iowa, followed with a community meeting in Indianola. On Friday, the "Main Street Express" stops in Manchester and Elkader, and on Saturday, in Dubuque, Cedar Falls and Mason City. Sunday and Monday, Edwards will hold community meetings in Ames, Colfax, Ottumwa, Fairfield and Cedar Rapids.

Edwards has outlined a clear vision for America with bold plans to help middle-class and working families achieve the American Dream. From guaranteeing universal health care to revitalizing rural communities and making sure trade policies help, not hurt, workers, Edwards has proposed specific ideas to build One America, where all Americans can get ahead. Edwards has laid out his plans in an 80-page book, "The Plan to Build One America," which allows caucus goers to learn more about his ideas and find out exactly where he stands on the important issues facing our country.