Random notes and impressions on the 2007 ACORN Presidential Candidates Forum featuring Hilary Clinton, Dennis Kucinich and John Edwards
It all began (as Marisa noted) with a medley of mantras in organic surround sound. It all began in a church that's seen notable leaders, from Martin Luther King, Jr. to former Senior Pastor William Gray, pounding the pulpit many times before.
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1:00 p.m. - ACORN volunteers poured in on the fringes of Bright Hope Baptist Church repeating various social justice chants in succession. It was a thematic element of the day's events, echoed by at least one candidate during his address to those in attendance. (At one point, low-toned voices in the press section could be heard making up their own chants as the crowd waited for Bright Hope Senior Pastor Kevin Johnson's belated arrival to the podium for an opening prayer. Instead of "No justice, no peace," there was a slightly mischievous, under-the-breath round of "No pastor, no prayer.")
For most of the next two hours, several speakers took the podium, starting with Democratic mayoral candidate Michael Nutter and U.S. Congressman Chaka Fattah. The crowd of hundreds was then regaled with first-person stories from folks who'd seen the underbelly of American society, folks who wanted to impress upon the gathered throng the worthiness of ACORN's mission.
For more comprehensive thoughts on each of the candidate's addresses, one might try John Morgan's rundown at Pennsylvania Progressive. Booman offered some thoughts, and ACORN had their own running tally of sorts.
But here are my impressions of the candidates, in order of their appearances:
3:00 p.m. - Hillary Clinton gave a decent set of opening remarks, with some extra grace peppered in because she had something of a heckling situation to deal with. A running theme throughout her time on stage seemed to be that regular people are "invisible" to the current administration, but that they would be visible to the future President Clinton.
Given her support of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, I'm always a little curious as to how, or whether, she's changed her thinking since then - and in what ways would common folks really be more visible to her? Given the number one reason for consumer bankruptcy is healthcare-related debt, I'm glad she can still at least say the words "universal healthcare."
3:55 p.m. - Dennis Kucinich, though he's clearly running far behind either Clinton or Edwards, seemed to be the darling of the crowd. Perhaps being the only candidate in attendance who's ever seen anything resembling poverty firsthand, he was a bit better equipped to speak to ACORN's core issues on a personal level. His address to the crowd, and at times his answers to member-posed questions, were met with strong ovations. It leads me to wonder whether this guy would be polling so far behind if more of his party's base were exposed to not only his offbeat charisma, but also his intimate knowledge of the issues facing those on society's lower rungs.
Kucinich began his address by leading ACORN's "The people united..." chant in both English and Spanish. And while all three candidates would specifically mention universal healthcare, the congressman's plan was the only one that was explicitly a single-payer plan. He also strongly denounced NAFTA, mostly for its lack of worker protection mandates for Mexican workers. He seemed to link NAFTA to the modern influx of undocumented immigrants, calling for the cancellation of both NAFTA and the WTO. Probably the most memorable line from Kucinich's remarks was, "Poverty is a weapon of mass destruction." (Marisa also happened to catch the rousing segment of his address on video - click here.)
4:40 p.m. - The final candidate of the day, John Edwards, took the stage and offered up a technically flawless dissertation addressing ACORN's core issues (the same ones each candidate was asked to address in their respective Q & A sessions). Though I'm sure each candidate supports strengthening labor laws to favor workers, he was the only one to mention it as a priority.
His most memorable line (or some version of it) was that ending poverty has been "the cause of his life." He repeated it several times. I couldn't tell if the repetition was a strategic calculation, or insecurity that those in attendance might not believe him if he'd said it only once or twice.
But perhaps the biggest impression was made by an Edwards pledge to raise the minimum wage to 9.50/hr with an index to automatically float the wage according to other economic factors (presumably some sort of CoLA-type plan).
Mr. Edwards concluded his initial remarks by mentioning the Iraq war and the need to end it. He was greeted warmly throughout his address
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Basic points on which all three candidates were in general agreement:
All candidates either mentioned the idea of a living wage or touted a plan the bore similarity to it - well, to be fair, Sen. Clinton really only answered a question about the living wage (lumped in with other things) by saying yes several times.
Another item on which all three guests agreed was the need for universal Pre-Kindergarten, though Kucinich and Edwards took the education subsidies a few steps further by advocating for free college tuition for those who qualify to attend college.
One of ACORN's key issues has had to do with predatory lending practices. All three candidates mentioned the need for federal legislation against predatory lending as well.
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For more on ACORN and what they do, visit their website.
Hopefully a few of the higher powered local shutterbugs in attendance will have some photos for online perusal before too long.
UPDATE: I don't know how I missed her before, but Above Average Jane has a fairly detailed play-by-play, as well as some personal observations on the event.
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