- As I've mentioned a few times now, Edwards has been all over the Thanksgiving hook this week to talk about his policies on poverty and hunger. Today he released his plan to fight hunger in America, which includes some of the obvious ideas – raise the minimum wage, cut taxes for low-income workers, improve public schools, increase affordable housing offerings, provide universal health care, and improve unemployment. It also includes some of the less obvious ideas, like passing a farm bill with strong nutrition programs, improving school meals (and providing more of them for children from low-income families free of charge), improving meal plans for seniors, improving the food security of poor neighborhoods, and providing energy assistance so families don't have to choose between buying food or paying the heating bill.
- Obama put out a statement on food shortage today as well, though not the same sort of comprehensive plan. In it, he made several legislative requests: "To help address this, we need to stand up to the special interests, bring Republicans and Democrats together, and pass the Farm Bill immediately. And while we're at it, let's strengthen the Emergency Food Assistance Program, the Food Stamp Program and the Commodity Supplemental Food Programs and launch additional anti-hunger initiatives to help ensure that no American goes hungry." The statement didn't mention specifics about what that Farm Bill should look like, however.
- Clinton's campaign offices are accepting donations of nonperishable foods to be delivered to local food programs.
- The front-running Republicans also came out with holiday-themed statements. Giuliani's focused on pilgrims and tyranny. Romney's focused on the military (sorry, doesn't appear to be on his website). And Thompson talked about Ronald Reagan, whose legacy as an actor-cum-politician is probably the thing Thompson should be most thankful for this year in the absence of an actual campaign.
--Kate Sheppard
