Katha Pollitt repeats the truth:
John Edwards is about the only presidential candidate who mentions the 36.5 million Americans--12.3 percent--who fall below the poverty line ($10,488 for a single person, $20,444 for a family of four), and the additional 19 percent who are what sociologist Katherine Newman calls the near poor--100 to 200 percent above the poverty line.
It's relevant to the issues we've been discussing today that a candidate like Edwards, who earnestly pushes substantial policy initiatives to deal with problems like poverty, isn't going to be a favorite of corporate lobbyists. Incrementalism and outright pro-lobbyist sentiment, which we've seen from Edwards' two main competitors, are the way to rake in the big money. Obviously, Edwards' decision to accept public funds is more a strategic choice than some kind of bold moral stand. But it's a strategic choice that resulted from his having taken bold moral stands in the past on issues like poverty and health care in the past. Those won him the love of ACORN and the SEIU -- and let's hope the SEIU has the courage to endorse the candidate their members voted for! -- but not the love of the bundlers who fill campaign coffers.
