Madeleine Stowe among the steelworkers

Unmentioned is the story in today's LA Times (the Trib's sister newspaper) about how Edwards' campaign bus broke down early into the 36 hour "Msrathon for the Middle Class", and was abandoned:

"Oops!

To cap off his four-year campaign to win Iowa's Democratic caucus Thursday night, John Edwards planned a 36-hour marathon bus tour through 15 of the crucial state's 99 counties with a whole series of policy announcements to garner publicity and caucus votes.

But 12 hours into the political odyssey -- billed as Edwards' "Marathon for the Middle Class" -- his Main Street Express bus began making very disturbing noises in western Iowa. In darkness, the bus with the entire Edwards entourage pulled over at a service station and was abandoned.

Oh, the awful symbolism for a political campaign struggling to overcome a new Des Moines Register poll showing him behind Hillary Clinton and way behind -- like eight points -- this senatorial upstart Barack Obama in what everyone admits is a make-or-break contest for Edwards presidential hopes in the Hawkeye state, where he finished second to John Kerry in 2004."

Brucie,do you have any interest in your own party or is your life solely based on making idiotic comments in regards to the Dems?

Here's the real reason Brucie and the other sheep dis-like Edwards.The "Average Joe" Republicant is pulling for corporate America.Like Terry says,we should be thankful they allow us anything.

Back to Story - Help
Edwards attacks corporate abuses 9 minutes ago

Democrat presidential contender John Edwards on Wednesday mounted an attack on corporate abuses and excessive executive pay, promising a series of moves that he said would "restore balance between America's corporations and America's working families."

In an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal, the former Democratic senator from North Carolina said that if elected president he would cap untaxed chief executive pay, require companies to enroll employees in retirement plans and force firms to honor pension promises to workers, even in bankruptcy.

Edwards, who is running third in Iowa's Democrat presidential nominating contest, according to the latest Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll, also promised to make universal health care his first domestic priority but gave no details. The Iowa caucuses will be held on Thursday night.

The opinion piece marks the most specific challenge so far from politicians running for president on the role U.S. corporations play in the economy.

"The problem is that the successes of our economy are no longer shared," wrote Edwards. "Forty percent of all economic growth over the past 20 years has gone to the top 1 percent of American families."

Chief executives now earn 400 times the average salary, according to Edwards, while the share of corporate profits going to CEO pay has doubled since the 1990s and the real value of the minimum wage has fallen.

"CAP COMPENSATION"

To counter the growing wage gap, Edwards said that as president, he would "immediately cap untaxed deferred compensation for executives."

He also promised measures to give shareholders the power to call shareholder meetings, remove directors and "have a say on executive pay."

He said he would also create "a new universal retirement account," requiring every company to automatically enroll its workers in some form of plan.

Edwards promised workers protection from companies that look to offload pension obligations by going into bankruptcy.

"As president, I will ensure that corporations honor the pension promises they've made to workers, by giving workers a claim for lost pensions, just like lost wages," he said.

Edwards' latest attack, while more specific than previous comments, did not come as a surprise to Wall Street.

"It's much better balanced than I would have expected from Senator Edwards, given some of his past comments," said Phil Orlando, chief equity market strategist at New York-based fund manager Federated Investors.

"I am not sure how Senator Edwards would achieve these things, but they are all worthy goals," said Orlando. "My concern is that there is a lot of disconnect between what he would like to achieve and what that would cost and how he is going to fund it."

Copyright © 2008 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters

Wow, Bruce thank you for highlighting the all important issue of Presidential Campaign Bus maintenance. This truly is the issue that will define the success of the nation under the next President.

Are the maintenance logs for the Romney, Huckabee and Guiliani campaign busses available on line? I'd like to examine them closely to determine who I should vote for.

Poor RNC Bruce,

Nothing good to say about Team (R), so he trashes the Democratic candidates one of whom will be the next president of the United States of America.

!GOBAMA!

I just wanted to correct Bruce about the bus. The bus did not break down. Edwards and his people heard some noises and rather than take any chances of having the bus break down they were pro-active and replaced the bus.

So Bruce, I guess you will have to modify your comment about the symbolism to show that rather than let problems happen Edwards pro-actively fixes them.