AP Features, March 24th, 2007
John Edwards said Saturday he is "definitely in the race for the duration" as he sought to reassure supporters who may be worried that he can balance a presidential campaign with his wife's cancer diagnosis.
"I know because of the nature of the woman I'm married to that she will be there every single step of the way to make sure that I do it," said the Democrats' vice presidential nominee in 2004. "And we take our responsibility to serving this country very seriously."
At a candidates' forum, Edwards pointed out his wife, Elizabeth, sitting in the front row and thanked those who have offered words of encouragement since the couple announced Thursday that her breast cancer has spread to the bone.
Edwards spoke at an event focused on health care that was sponsored by the Service Employees International Union and the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a Washington-based policy group.
The former North Carolina senator said he and his wife understand that dealing with their personal struggle will require "a focus and a maturity."
"This is not the first challenge that Elizabeth and I have been through," he said, noting their teenage son Wade died in a car accident 11 years ago.
Edwards said he is the only candidate to offer a detailed plan to provide health care for everyone in the U.S., at the cost of raising taxes. He said he and his wife are getting too much credit for forging on when millions of women are enduring the same struggle and the additional worry of getting the necessary care.
"One of the reasons that I want to be president of the United States is to make sure that every woman and every person in America gets the same things that we have," Edwards said.
Video of the candidate forum was fed live over the Internet. The moderator, Time magazine's Karen Tumulty, took questions from Internet viewers as well as prescreened questions from union members in the audience.
Candidates from both parties were invited to participate, but only seven who are running for the Democratic nomination accepted, hoping to woo a union that is certain to back a Democratic candidate.
Other candidates scheduled to address the forum were New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson; Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois, Hillary Clinton of New York and Chris Dodd of Connecticut; Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich; and former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel.
While in Las Vegas, the candidates also raised money and courted the state's largest labor union. Clinton had a fundraiser and so did Obama.
Clinton, Obama and Richardson attended a Friday night rally of cocktail waitresses, housekeepers and line cooks who belong to the Culinary Workers Union, Local 226, a group of 60,000 members expected to be a key organizing force in the state's caucus.
Clinton recalled her work as a young woman busing tables, Obama talked about walking the picket line with a sister union in Chicago and Richardson, speaking in Spanish, promoted worker rights.
