Obama-Edwards Feud Brewing?

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As we near the Iowa caucuses, Senator Obama and former Senator Edwards have taken a break from bashing Senator Clinton to bash one another just a bit. (Making this scenario a little less likely.)

Obama had this to say about Edwards:

“The reason now that I raise this issue of the special interests is because everybody now in the campaign talks about how I am going to fight for you. Like Sen. Edwards, who is a good guy—he’s been talking a lot about, ‘I am going to fight the lobbyists and the special interests in Washington.’ Well the question you have to ask is: Were you fighting for ’em when you were in the Senate. What did you do?”

I was at Edwards events all day today, so I found an opportunity to get the candidate’s thoughts while at Coe College in Cedar Rapids. Here’s what he said in response to Obama’s comments.

“I spent 20 years fighting these powerful corporations in courtrooms and winning over and over again. In public life, I’ve carried on the same cause. One of the most obvious examples is I co-authored the patients’ bill of rights, one of the biggest pieces of legislation taken on by the Democrats after we took over the United States Senate. I, Senator Kennedy, and Senator McCain were the cosponsors of it. We beat back the insurance companies and the HMOs and got the patients’ bill of rights passed in the United States senate.”

Edwards declined to go negative, as you can see. We’ll see where this goes. I’ll have more on Edwards in the next day or so.

My crude photographic representation of this situation after the jump.

obama_edwards_broken_heart.jpg

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OUR DEADLINE MATH PROBLEM

It’s risky, but also unavoidable: A full one-third of the dollars that we need to pay for the journalism you rely on has to get raised in December. A good December means our newsroom is fully staffed, well-resourced, and on the beat. A bad one portends budget trouble and hard choices.

The December 31 deadline is drawing nearer, and if we’re going to have any chance of making our goal, we need those of you who’ve never pitched in before to join the ranks of MoJo donors.

We simply can’t afford to come up short. There is no cushion in our razor-thin budget—no backup, no alternative sources of revenue to balance our books. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the fierce journalism we do. That’s why we need you to show up for us right now.

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