NEWSWEEK: What are the differences between you and Kerry?
EDWARDS: There are multiple differences on economics. One, the difference in our personal stories. Two, I’m the person who’s focused much more on what has to be done for the middle class. Three, I have not heard him talk about poverty. I doubt if it would be a priority. I would wake up every single day in the White House and this would be a driving force in my life. I talk about the things that most Americans care about and I care about.
On Iraq, except for the fact that I’m more direct in my answers, there’s just not much difference.
Do you have enough foreign-policy experience to be president?
If you look over the last 25 years, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Reagan, Carter–I have more experience in national security and foreign policy than any of them when they came to office. I have been involved in writing legislation after September 11. I’ve laid out the most comprehensive ideas about how to keep us safe… more than Kerry. But at the end of the day, the most important things are your qualities of leadership, strength of character, judgment.
Are you saying that part of the choice between you and Kerry is a choice between a fall campaign on national security versus one based on economic issues?
Yes. I wouldn’t make the point so sharply, because national security is so important. But why in the world would we let George Bush determine the terrain of the debate? Senator Kerry says he can go toe-to-toe with George Bush on national security, but as one of the reporters said at the last debate, that’s dead last on the list of issues voters care most about. The first thing people ask about are jobs and the economy. The second is health care. The third is Iraq and national security. Bush wants this to be solely about war, but why would we allow him to [do that] when he’s enormously weak on the economy and jobs?
Are we at war?
Yes. This is a different kind of war, not the kind that FDR and others ran. The [war on terror] is a complicated, multifaceted war, in terms of what the danger, risk and appropriate response is. The new president will have to reach out to leaders around the world and do a significant amount of traveling in the first year to undo the damage President Bush has done.
What can be done, practically speaking, to stop the outsourcing of jobs?
No one can stop it. You first have to lay the basic foundation for long-term economic growth. The second and shorter-term component is to have a trade policy that doesn’t stick our head in the sand, is not protectionist and recognizes that trade is important both for us and for the rest of the world by including international standards for environment, labor, etc., in the text of these trade agreements. That will slow, not stop, the erosion of some of these manufacturing jobs.
Dick Gephardt says that you and John Kerry, despite one or two differences, are basically indistinguishable on trade.
If you look at our records, with the exception of [permanent normal trade relations with China], we’ve been on opposite sides of the fence on this issue. I voted against final fast-track authority for this president. He voted for it. I voted against the Caribbean trade agreement. He voted for it. I voted against the African trade agreement. He voted for it. I voted against the Singapore trade agreement. He voted for it. I voted against the Chilean trade agreement. He voted for it.
You believe you make a smaller target for Republicans than Kerry does?
Yes. They don’t want to run against someone who will defy all their stereotypes. The only stereotype they have against me is the trial-lawyer thing. I grew up in a small town in rural America. My father worked in a mill, first one to go to college. It comes through to independent voters.
Won’t they use your trial-lawyer background against you?
It would be more powerful if it was a different opponent than Bush. He’s so strongly tied to corporate interests. I’ve been on this side my whole life; he’s been on the other side his whole life.
