John Edwards 2008: What’s not to like

Some issues like terrorism, health care and education are key topics from election to election, but signs are mounting daily that a new subject – financial security – will be central to next year’s presidential race.

Layoffs, mortgage anxieties and wild financial markets are now staples on the evening news, contributing to trepidation at a time when large majorities of voters have long said they believe the country is headed in the wrong direction.

Later today, AARP plans to release a “Divided We Fail” survey of a total of 5,000 of its members in five early voting states, and the data suggest that the candidates will be talking an awful lot about financial security, including savings, Social Security and pensions.

Half of those polled were Democrats and half of them were Republicans.

More than 9 in 10 of the potential caucus-goers or primary voters said financial security will be important to their votes, and between half and three-quarters called it “very” important. The survey is by Divided We Fail, a project of AARP, the Business Roundtable and the Service Employees International Union.

The poll covers New Hampshire, Iowa, South Carolina, Florida and Nevada, where AARP has a combined 4 million members. AARP will call attention to the results by holding events in each of the states on Thursday.

This seeming perfect storm of financial unease has already prompted some candidates and members of Congress to address the issue. Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards has long made economic populism a central issue in his speeches and has a “predatory mortgages” policy.

However, the prominence of the issue has drawn attention his campaign did not want to a private equity fund for which he worked until last year. This week, The Wall Street Journal reported on 34 New Orleans homeowners who have faced foreclosure suits from units of the fund.

The Politico 8/23/07
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0807/5485.html