And convince me, too

[michaeledward]

John Kerry has selected as his running mate and candidate for Vice President of the United States Mr. John Edwards.

John Edwards is one of the more dramatic figures in the Democratic Party, and an embodiment of the American Dream, in which hardwork and perserverance leads to success.

John Edwards was born in Seneca, South Carolina in 1953 and raised in Robbins, North Carolina. There, he learned the values of hard work and perseverance from his father, Wallace, who worked in the textile mills for 36 years and from his mother, Bobbie, who ran a shop and worked at the post office. Working alongside his father at the mill, he formed a strong belief that all Americans deserve an equal chance to succeed and be heard.

A proud product of public schools, John Edwards was the first person in his family to attend college. He worked his way through North Carolina State University where he graduated with high honors in 1974. And he earned a law degree with honors in 1977 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

After graduating from law school, John Edwards set out on a path to fight for families who needed help. For nearly two decades, he stood up for victims’ rights against the insurance industry and stood down their armies of lawyers. He gave families hope in their darkest moments and helped them overcome challenges greater than any they had ever known. His passion and dedication to the people he defended earned him the respect, recognition, and gratitude of people across North Carolina.

In 1998, he ran for the Senate and won, defeating an incumbent Republican. In the Senate, Edwards quickly emerged as a champion of middle class Americans. He won bipartisan praise for his leadership in the fight for a Patients’ Bill of Rights, which passed the Senate in 2001, but was blocked by the Bush administration. He wrote and helped pass a measure so teams of skilled educators could go into troubled schools and help turn them around. He worked to protect civil liberties and save Social Security and Medicare.

Edwards believes quality health care should be a right for all. He co-wrote legislation to bring down the price of prescription drugs by $60 billion. And as an advocate for the environment, he led the fight against the Bush administration’s roll back of our clean air laws. He was a leader in passing campaign finance reform, and authored a new rule that requires lawyers to take action to stop corporate wrongdoing.

As a member of the Select Committee on Intelligence, Edwards has traveled throughout the Middle East, South Asia, the Persian Gulf, Central Asia, and Europe. And he has met with military commanders, U.S. intelligence officials, prominent regional policy experts, and key foreign leaders. After September 11th, he helped improve security at our ports. And he proposed innovative ways to defend our computer systems, improve our emergency warning system, and increase the effectiveness of the terrorism watch list.

John Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, who met as law students at Chapel Hill, were married in 1977. They have had four children: their eldest daughter, Cate, a recent graduate of Princeton University; six-year-old Emma Claire, and a four-year-old son, Jack. Their first child, Wade, died in 1996. John and Elizabeth Edwards opened the Wade Edwards Learning Lab in Raleigh, North Carolina. The learning lab offers students afterschool access to computers and tutoring in technology. The Edwards family also established an education foundation in memory of their son that offers college scholarships to students.

 

[michaeledward]

Woman make up more than 1/2 of the American electorate. John Kerry and John Edwards recognize that much of the progress woman have made in America and even around the world has been lost in recent years. They will work to restore programs that help woman balance work and family, expand college opportunities, protect their health and reproductive rights, and close the pay gap.

This is from the John Kerry web-site.

In America, women should be able to go as far as their talents will take them.

But today, women are witnessing an unprecedented erosion of their basic rights. Over the last three years, they've seen attempts to block access to contraceptives, gag doctors from even mentioning abortion to their patients, freeze funding for family planning across the world, take away their constitutional right to choose, and ban medical procedures even when a woman's health is at stake.

They've seen 500,000 children shut out of afterschool programs. They've witnessed the end of the Equal Pay initiative, funding cuts for programs designed to promote gender equality, cuts to emergency shelters that protect women from violence, and administration-backed efforts to weaken Title IX.

Now more than ever, we need a president who will put the American government and legal system back on the side of women. Throughout his decades-long career in public service, John Kerry has been a champion of women's issues. He and John Edwards will commit to helping women balance work and family, expand college opportunities, protect their health and their constitutional right to choose, increase funding for cancer research, fight violent crime and close the pay gap.

John Kerry and John Edwards will:

Help Balance Work And Family
John Kerry and John Edwards will greatly expand after-school programs to serve 3.5 million children and fund a historic increase in the Child Care Tax Credit to meet the needs of overstretched parents.

Close The Pay Gap
On average, women still earn only 77 cents for every dollar earned by men. John Kerry and John Edwards believe that we must make equal pay for equal work a reality, not a slogan. They will ensure greater transparency and fairness by improving enforcement and disclosure about companies' payment practices.

Protect Women's Health And Right To Choose
John Kerry was an original co-sponsor of the Women's Health Equity Act, which ensures women's access to the highest quality and most advanced health care available. As president, John Kerry will increase funding for breast and cervical cancer research and treatment, require insurance plans to cover contraception and fight for a meaningful Patients' Bill of Rights to guarantee women direct access to their OB/GYNs. And John Kerry will only nominate individuals to the federal bench whose records demonstrate a respect for the full range of constitutional rights, including the right to privacy and the right to choose. Open College Opportunities
For more than 30 years, Title IX has helped extend opportunity in education and athletics to millions of girls and women. John Kerry and John Edwards will defend Title IX and work to expand college opportunities for women.

 

[michaeledward]

From www.johnkerry.com

Today, Americans will face a choice. How will we find our way forward? How will we keep America safe, and keep the American Dream alive? The election is in your hands. And if you believe we need a fresh start in Iraq, if you believe we can create and keep good jobs here in America, if you believe we need to get health care costs under control, if you believe in the promise of stem cell research, if you believe our deficits are too high and we’re too dependent on Mideast oil, then join John Kerry and together we’ll change America.