by John McCormick
From Thursday's Tribune:
Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards stopped in Chicago Wednesday evening for two relatively small fundraisers, a day before Sen. Barack Obama was scheduled to raise money in Edwards' home state.
Amid the home-turf invasions by the two top-tier Democratic presidential candidates, Edwards also sought to talk up his environmental credentials.
"We're the worst polluter on the planet," he said. "America cannot go to China, India, the developing world … until we're an example for good."
Edwards called for greater restrictions on coal-fired power plants and repeated his pledge for dramatic reductions in greenhouse gases.
"Until we have the technology to capture carbon being emitted, there should not be another coal-fired power plant built in the United States of America," he said.
The fundraising event at BB's bar and restaurant on East Hubbard Street was one of Edwards' so-called "Small Change for Big Change" fundraisers. It attracted about 200 people who paid as little as $15 to get in.
Minimum admission for a later, smaller event, however, was believed to be closer to $1,000 per person, although Edwards' campaign refused to provide specifics on the private gathering.
Obama, meanwhile, is scheduled for a Thursday fundraising swing through North Carolina. The Illinois Democrat is set to stop in Raleigh and Chapel Hill, where Edwards' campaign is headquartered.
Edwards made no mention of Obama Wednesday, nor did he take any direct shots at his policy proposals, as he had done in a debate earlier this month. Instead, he stuck mostly to the sort of sunny message he used in 2003 and 2004.
When Edwards was in Chicago last month for another fundraiser, he vowed to compete aggressively in Illinois and continue to raise money here, despite it being Obama's home base.
"The great movements that have taken place in my lifetime in America, they didn't start in the Oval Office," he said. "They started all around this country in places like this."
Republicans, meanwhile, continue to try to paint Edwards as a wealthy man who has been criticized recently for charging $400 haircuts to his campaign.
"John Edwards should be looking for change in his own lifestyle, not from small donors," Republican National Committee spokesman Chris Taylor said in a statement. "For every 25 donors, John Edwards can almost afford a haircut."
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Comments
Another Jo McCormick love letter to Democrats.
For anyone who doubts that the Swamp is merely the Trib's bulletin board for the DNC, I did a search in the Swamp search engine for articles that contained the names of the leading presidential candidates of both parties. And the inconvenient truth is that the Swamp (reflecting the bias of its reporters) shortchanges the Republicans. For the record, the Democrats were mentioned 4-5 times as often as the Republicans.
Democrat frontrunner Clinton was mentioned in 136 screensworth of articles. 2nd place Democrat Obama rated a little better--148. 3rd place John Edwards scored a 46.
By contrast, Republican frontrunner (and overall frontrunner) Rudi Giuliani scored 31, 2nd place Republican John McCain scored a 62, and 3rd place Republican Mitt Romney scored 24.
Democrat Chris Dodd, at 1% in the polls, scored 34 articles--more than GOP frontrunner Giuliani.
The internet search is not perfect. But the biases it reveals are unmistakeable.
Posted by: Bruce | June 14, 2007 9:33 AM
"John Edwards should be looking for change in his own lifestyle, not from small donors," Republican National Committee spokesman Chris Taylor said in a statement. "For every 25 donors, John Edwards can almost afford a haircut."
What is the point of inserting such quotations into your news article? It clearly does not constitute newsworthy material; instead, you are simply acting as a defacto advertisement, providing space for silly ad-hominem attacks.
Posted by: Jared | June 14, 2007 10:49 AM
Bruce,
Why don't you just go ahead and change your handle to "One Trick Pony?"
Or maybe "Wah, Wah?"
Or "RNC Shill?"
Or...
Posted by: Doug Zook | June 14, 2007 12:11 PM
"Doug", the "one trick pony" is reporter John McCormick and marginally literate leftoid poster robots like yourself. I merely point out the facts of the Swamp's neverchanging DNC shilling. The question is, why do you love biased reporting, while hating anyone who points out the bias?
As a further example of Swamp bias, while the Swamp reports above on the Chicago fundraising swings of Obama and Edwards, Mitt Romney's Chicago fundraiser goes unreported.
Posted by: Bruce | June 14, 2007 10:08 PM