One reason I was glad Edwards dropped out was Joe Trippi.

I'm sensitive to the people these candidates hire to run their campaigns, because most of the consultants who have been doing this for Democrats for several election cycles JUST LOSE.

As a former Edwards supporter and Iowa caucus precinct captain for him in 2004, I have to say that his behavior since leaving the race is simply shameful.

That an empty promise of a Czar position is so commendable by Edwards (albeit via Trippi) shows how superficially lame John has been in his efforts to keep poverty on the agenda but also support a candidate that stands up for the middle class and does not take bags of cash from lobbyists.

I am ashamed to have supported John Edwards. Who cares what he thinks anymore; his non-courage displayed via his self-interested silence since leaving the race is disgusting.

Yeah, I'm, sure she's going to make a "task force" and "committee" to deal with the issue as well.

Maybe they will publish a big document after years of study of the issue.

Is anybody keeping track of how many czars she's said she's going to crown after she's electede? And is there anything left that's going to governed by regular cabinet secretaries other than one of the multiplicity of Hillerine czars?

Penn is obviously sniffing too much colombian because this is just bad PR word choice. The historical context of the word "Czar" makes it seem like the person's job is to cause poverty by drinking a small country's GDP worth of roderer crystal. (the czar need a god damn a clear bottle, godamnit!)

I'm sure the $109 million will convince Edwards the Clintons' know a lot about poverty.

Given his years as a community organizer in poor neighborhoods, Obama has experience of poverty that I think informs all his policy positions. Would creating another cabinet-level position necessarily be a more effective route than reinvigorating existing organizations (such as HHS, agriculture, energy, commerce, labor, HUD, etc) to work together in ways that address their effects on poverty?

Wonder if a "poverty czar" gets paid as much as a trial lawyer?

re: "he went back to work at the Southern Poverty whatever it is"

okay, here's some info on that "whatever it is" he did for about two years. I found this in about one minute searching online:

Edwards launched the UNC Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity in September 2005, with Hurricane Katrina and the scenes of deprivation it laid bare days earlier giving the venture an unexpected timeliness. The center had a small staff, paid for mostly by several million dollars from Edwards's campaign supporters. It organized a dozen conferences and panel discussions over Edwards's two-plus years there, sponsored a book published last week and explored rebuilding strategies for New Orleans

Edwards received a salary of $40,000 for work that had him on campus a day or two a week. He spent the rest of his time traveling the country and working as a paid adviser to a hedge fund.

not a bad pay rate. wish i had rich donors that would pay me the same for that level of commitment.

as for his "expertise" on the subject of poverty, well, the same article has a bit on that too...

If there is a personal imprint on Edwards's plan, it is his argument for reducing racial and economic segregation.... doing away with public housing projects and replacing them with 1 million rental vouchers, to disperse the poor into better neighborhoods and suburbs, closer to good schools and jobs.

The idea sounds bold, but it faces a deflating reality: A major federal experiment conducted for more than a decade has found that dispersing poor families with vouchers does not improve earnings or school performance, leaving some economists puzzled that Edwards would make such dispersal a centerpiece of his anti-poverty program. Edwards said he was unaware of the experiment.

oops. after suing for profit for most of his life, he commits to poverty issues for two years (while spending more time enriching himself further at a hedge fund), and voila a poverty-oriented campaign for President was born without him ever having sacrificed anything personal for the cause, not even much of his own time

sorry, but call me unimpressed

The idea is laudable . . . BUT realistically the chance that any Cabinet Post in the Clinton Administration not being contracted directly from GE is nil . . . So the the intent will be most likely be obscured.

Tena, you can't mean the Southern Poverty Law Center. That was founded in 1971 by Morris Dees and Joe Levin, which isn't to say Edwards hasn't been affiliated with it at some point, but I'm just sayi

NO, it's something else which is why I said "something or other"

I'm not that dumb, honest.

I just can't recall the official name of the org he founded and works with.

Anybody wanting poverty to go away would enforce the Sherman Anti-trust Acts and ask that the nation's tax rate be rolled back to the levels charged under President Eisenhower.

Throw in a law demanding that any corporation providing goods or services to the federal government or transportting goods or services across any state line to any American governmental entity be headquartered on American soil as an American corporation . . .

This sounds planned out, no? She announces the poverty cabinet position (possibly just to get his endorsement), he says through his adviser that he supports that 100%, and then Clinton perhaps will offer it to him later in public....and there you have it!

This clears the way for him to look like he didn't sell out, he just really wants to do something about poverty. It redeems him.

It ends up not looking like an endorsement of Clinton, but rather a furthering of his beliefs, an opportunity to "champion a cause."
This is what he will tell himself...

The people will see through it though, esp. his supporters- which is many labor unions, people left of center, the labor movement itself will feel he sold out. Then again, maybe they should have done more to help him out during the early primary season.

Makes no sense whatsoever for him to go with Clinton, but hey...I hope he comes to his senses. He and Obama are much more in synch in terms of their politics.

What exactly would a poverty Czar do??

The ONLY reason Hillary is talking about this is because she needs Edwards' endorsement. As to the idea itself, it's moronic. Remember Bill Bennett, the senior Bush's "drug czar"? This is sort of the same deal. Hillary's "poverty czar" would be a vanity post with virtually no staff and no power to do anything other than to stay out of the way and hold an occasional press conference.

More desperate nonsense from a campaign that's becoming more irrelevant by the day.

Edwards waited to long to be relevant. Show him the door, or doors-- considering the size of that mansion from which he spouts pleas for the poor.