(Welcome home Will. It's good to have you back. - promoted by Karl-Thomas Musselman)
My name is Will Ikard and recently returned home to Austin after six months in Iowa where I worked the caucuses for John Edwards. I am so proud of my time working for him. John set the terms of this debate and made Democrats address the 37 million Americans who wake up every day in poverty, the 13 million American children who go hungry every year, the 200,000 American veterans who go to sleep each night on grates or under bridges. I am so proud of my time working for him.
But this was not John's year. Such is politics. My only consolation is that there is another candidate in this race who shares John Edwards' vision for making America what it can be. That candidate is Barack Obama.
Though Edwards and Obama certainly disagreed on some elements of policy, anyone who got to spend as much time with the candidates as I did knows that they share a commitment to changing America for the better. The clearest example of this, to me, is their shared rejection lobbyist money. Two major candidates showed courage and leadership by putting their own campaigns at risk and refusing to take money from Washington lobbyists and PACs. The other candidate defended the lobbyist system. I need no more evidence than that.
Barack Obama will bring about the change we so desperately need in this country. Please join me in voting and caucusing for him on March 4.
(And let's all cross our fingers for a John Edwards Attorney General-ship.)
