Hoping to build influence among young voters and the broader audience of the interior West, presidential candidate John Edwards visited students at Metropolitan State College of Denver on Thursday with a call to “take action.”
“We have to show the world that we understand our responsibility is not just to ourselves, but our responsibility is to humanity,” the former North Carolina senator and vice presidential candidate said to an estimated 700 students and other attendees.
Edwards targeted issues that several students said were important to them.
He opened with broad assessments of what he described as America’s diminished ethical leadership in the world, challenged his listeners to fight global warming and promoted universal health care, easier access to college and higher minimum wages.
“We have to be courageous again,” he said. “The United States of America is better than this.”
Edwards again apologized for his Senate vote authorizing the war in Iraq and said more troops there wouldn’t quell the bloodshed until Sunni and Shiite leaders formed a workable government.
Edwards seemed determined to leave the crowd with the impression that he was both visionary and practical by sticking to a pattern of leading with big-picture notions and following with a quick analysis of what a president and dedicated Americans could do to create change.
The method appealed to Rachael Moore, 21, who came to the event as part of her communications class.
“I think that everything that politicians say sounds good,” Moore said. But Edwards’ calling on the students to make those goals workable made sense to her. “He seems more proactive than most people,” she said. “I think he did a good job of empowering people, for sure.”
The Edwards camp billed its stop at the Denver campus as the launch of a college tour to get young people involved in the campaign, though the candidate already has visited the University of Iowa, Wake Forest University and Dartmouth College.
In the coming weeks, Edwards plans to visit the University of California campuses at Berkeley and Los Angeles, and also Howard University.
By picking the Metro State campus, Edwards spoke across the street from the Pepsi Center, which will host the 2008 Democratic National Convention.
His visit follows last week’s Denver stopover by a fellow Democratic candidate, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.
“I think the West is going to play a particularly strong role in whoever is elected president,” said Andy Boian, a Metro State professor of political science who is promoting Edwards in the region.
After the speech at Metro, Edwards moved to a reception for former Denver City Attorney Cole Finegan and then on to a fundraiser.
