Poverty and Beauty

John Edwards has just upped the ante on his bid to play up the issue of poverty in America. He hopes to call attention to the fact that one in eight Americans is living in poverty and that something should be done about it. Beginning this coming Monday, Edwards will be going on a tour to places where are Americans are struggling to live decently. How is this plan so bloody wonderful, when Edwards has to appeal to middle American voters - the very people Democrats need to win anywhere these days - who don't give a twit about the poor and, like Jim Cramer, think it's unpatriotic to have some kind of redistribution of wealth? If the middle class care about the poor so much, why do they try to avoid places like Newark?

Seems to me that Edwards is running for Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in a possible Obama (oh, please!) administration. I admire Edwards's pluck and his concern for the poor, but the last time a President tried to eliminate poverty, the voters put more Republicans and conservative Democrats in Congress. So Lyndon Johnson focused on Vietnam instead.

Speaking of which, a fond farewell to the late Lady Bird Johnson, the type of model First Lady we need more of these days and a woman who cared about the environment and wanted us to make America more beautiful than we found it. I'll think of her every time I drive down a beautiful highway in New Jersey - if I can find one. :-O