Will vs SJ .. a debate about Edwards

A Challenge to Will ..

Edwards, the generous?

Will,

Last night you took offense. I think you called me a liar.

That hurts.

If what I said offended you, I am truly sorry about that, BUT you claimed I said things that wre untrue. I have a life long commitment to truth. I never intentionally lie but .. like anyone else.. can be incorrect.

So calling me a liar implies that I have said something untrue .. willfully. What to do?

In the tradition of Hamilton, I suppose I could challenge you to duel but you may well be e a better shot than I.

So .. my challenge is ... show me, show me where I am wrong. If you do, the reward is of your choice ..

1. I will recant and apologize.
2. I will happily buy your dinner at DL.
3. I will contribute $100 to the Edwards campaign.

Fair enough? Blog enhtries instead of pistols seems more civilized.

So ... here are the issues:

To be clear, I like Edward's message. MANY people I respect a lot tell me they think he is the best candidate. Of the the three main rivals he has, IMHO, the clearest, most credible message.

However, when I vote I TRY to find out whether a message is hype or substance.

Perhpas I misspoke or you misheard, so for the record here is what I think I said:

John Edwards campaign as an antipoevertyy movement is harmed by his life style and lack of evidence that he has given money to the poor himself or raised significant moneys for that purpose.

I did NOT say, as you claimed, that Edwards has given NO moneys to poor people. I assume like most of us he does donate to charity. I also know, that under the law, one of his foundations below, the scholarship foundation, MUST disperse sme money. The questions is .. has he done anything significant n raising funds for the poor?

I have a great deal of respect for you and your opinions made me worry that my impressions were wrong. So I spent an hour this AM searching for evidence that I was wrong.

The BEST I can find, is this:

After the 2004 election, Edwards founded two institutions. One at the uNC was headed by Mr. E and had the purported purpose of creating a law center devoted to antipoverty. The Center was funded by (and is funded by) anonymous contributions.

The second is a foundation to fund schalrships for NC kids.

I then looked for both of these on the web. The UNC center is accessible, at least information is, via UNC The center apparently served as a PAC/study center for Mr.Edwards until his camnpaign began, It funded his travel, employed a number of former campaign aids, and supported some conferences. Although JE was its official director, it os not clear if he actually taught classes or received a state salary in this time.

The second foundation was also manned by campaign aids and did raise money. I did nt find accurate numbers as to the amount raised, but did find an announcement that ot had dispersed $300,000 in 2006. Modest.

I then lloked for other blogs commenting on JE .. positive or negative. To the best of my baility this is what seemed to be true:

1. Edwards UNC foundation IS evolving into a real academic center. That means it supports studoies. None of these so far have led anywhere exciting nor .. othert than talk-talk does there appear to be any real action.

Looking at blogs and opinion pieces, the charge is that the UNC center was actually a covert PAC and most of 3what I can read supports this contention. The Center, however, now has a new director and may become something interesting in its own right.

2. I had more trouble finding our what proportion of the scholarship fund raising was dispersed. The foundation did fund a field trip by JE and some NC students to New Orleans but that seems to have been more a publcity event ..for JE, vs poverty than anything else.

On some blogs, the charge is that the Foundation has only dispersed funds when challenged and, in any cae, all I saw was 300K.

Finally, I went to JE campaign site. I find it impossible to believe that he has done more than this BUT not mentioned it on the site.

Thgose are the best facts I could find. They suggest t me that FE is an attorney who has taken on poverty as his "case." That ia admirable. BUT, to be President he njeeds to lead by example. I do tno see how he has done that.

Your turn.


crossposted at HorsesAss