'Um, um, you know, those guys with the guns…' - Los Angeles Times(public speaker)

DES MOINES — You know the campaign days are getting long when you watch a candidate as practiced and smooth as John Edwards freeze up right before your eyes. Edwards was partway through his standard stump speech here this afternoon after receiving Iowa First Lady Mari Culver 's endorsement when he hit what seemed to be the public speaker's version of a marathon runner's "wall" — the point at which the body seems to say, "Let's just go home and sit on the patio for awhile and forget about all this running foolishness. A central element of Edwards' speech is the recitation of a litany of political decisions that he says came about because of the inordinate influence of corporations on national policy, beginning with trade agreements like NAFTA that Edwards says have cost millions of American jobs while enriching corporations "because big corporate America was for it. Hired by The Times in 1989, he has worked in its Washington bureau since 1996 — a perch providing him a close-up view of the impeachment of President Clinton, the government's response to 9/11 and the day-to-day wrangling of the two major parties. California/Local | National | World | Sports Opinion | Entertainment | Travel | Health L. Hoy | KTLA | Boodle. read more

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