Edwards: ´We should be leading'

March 20, 2007

By AARON GOULD SHEININ
asheinin@thestate.com

Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards said Monday the United States must be "committed to the long-term interest of humanity" even if that means doing some things that "don't seem to be in our short-term interest."

Edwards, an S.C. native and former U.S. senator from North Carolina, told a crowd of about 300 at Benedict College the U.S. should work to educate children of poor and developing nations, including Muslim children in Africa.

"America shouldn't be following. We should be leading that effort for kids to actually be educated in Africa in the Muslim world. Not taught in madrassas where they're taught to hate the United States of America," Edwards said.

A madrassa is an Islamic religious school. Some say the schools foster terrorism.

A magazine article earlier this year claimed U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., one of Edwards' top competitors for the Democratic nomination, was educated in a madrassa while he was living in Indonesia as a child. That report was later debunked. Obama attended school in Indonesia, but it was a secular, not religious, school.

Edwards' visit to Columbia comes as his campaign threatens to fade from the list of "top tier" candidates seeking the Democratic nomination. Even in his native state, the only state he won in the 2004 presidential primary campaign, recent polls show him firmly in third place, far behind U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and trailing or tied with Obama.

But with more than 10 months to go before the Jan. 29 primary in South Carolina, Edwards is working to remain in that top tier, hoping that the newness of the Obama campaign wears off and that polls showing large groups of voters have a negative impression of Clinton give him a shot at the nomination.

Columbia advertising executive Marvin Chernoff is among those who believe Edwards will be in the race when it matters: on primary day.

Chernoff hosted a private fundraiser for Edwards at his Lake Katherine home before the Benedict event. Edwards, Chernoff said, "has got a good grasp of how the world feels about this country and how we ought to change things so they get a different point of view."

Edwards' call for the next president to embark on a global "goodwill tour" to boost the nation's image with our countries is a good one, Chernoff said.

While at Benedict, a historically black college in the center of the city, Edwards said the U.S. has acknowledged a genocide is under way in the Sudan, but has failed to act. The country has watched as "an entire generation of children" is born with AIDS in Africa while doing little to prevent the disease's spread, he said.

Edwards also called for the federal government and private enterprise to do more to make college affordable, a topic that went over well in a crowd made up largely of students.

More should be done to ensure students don't leave college carrying "crushing debt for years and years and years."

That struck a chord with Shalice Sabra, 21, a junior social work student at Benedict. But Sabra said she wanted to hear more.

"He could have explained it more," she said. But if Edwards is still in the race come Jan. 29, Sabra said she will consider voting for him.

The Detroit native said she has also attended Columbia visits by Obama and Clinton.

Source: The State Newspaper

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