I crowded into an elementary school library with 150 or so other patient Edwards watchers. He gave a relatively brief ten minute stump speech and then fielded questions. My question was the final one he would take. Earlier he had expressed the intention of providing universal health care, funding higher pay for excellent teachers, and endorsed other big ticket programs. They were all received well by the crowd and I could only wonder how the audience thought the bill would be paid. There was of course the all too predictable Bush bashing which elicited the expected hoots and hollers. Anyway, with regard to my question of how he would deal with the 9 trillion dollar national debt, and the 60 trillion dollar unfunded medicare liability,  well, he dodged it, completely. He mentioned something of Clinton leaving us without debt (which is inaccurate), and how we'll grow the GDP to such an extent that it will be a non-issue. I'm paraphrasing, but the brief encounter left me looking for someone else. On the bright side, my daughter was pleased to get an autograph.

Peter T.