Edwards’ Legacy Lost

It was less than a month ago that John Edwards dropped out of the presidential race to let "history blaze its path."

Former Sen. Edwards called on the two remaining Democratic candidates from New Orleans’ impoverished Ninth Ward—the place where he also announced his candidacy in December 2006—to carry on in his quest to end poverty in America.

But, despite the pledge that Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton made to the former senator from North Carolina, the topic of poverty in America remained absent during Thursday night’s Democratic debate held at the University of Texas in Austin.

In his last debate appearance in South Carolina on Jan. 21, 2008, Edwards, who became known this campaign cycle as the 'angry populist,' mentioned the words poverty, poor and low-income 26 times.

In Thursday night’s debate, the word poor was mentioned once in Sen. Clinton’s response to a question asking if Sen. Obama was qualified to be the commander in chief.

"There are differences between us," she said, while pointing to her experience and life in public service where she said she worked to secure health care for children, expand legal services for the poor and to register voters.

But the absence of poverty in the candidates’ rhetoric was very similar. Instead, much of the cordial debate focused on topics like immigration reform, the war in Iraq and accusations Sen. Clinton cast last week about Sen. Obama plagiarizing a speech given by Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick.

Sen. Clinton, however, did make an attempt to ally herself with Edwards in being the first two candidates to propose a universal health care plan. Edwards was the first candidate to release a universal health care plan and he has remarked that Clinton’s plan, which came out months after his, is eerily similar.

During Thursday's debate, Clinton attacked Obama for failing to insure 15 million people under his plan.

Sen. Obama quickly reassured the crowded auditorium that his plan would subsidize people who could not afford to purchase their own plan and that ultimately, both plans had the same purpose of insuring all Americans.

He then attacked Clinton’s plan for requiring a mandate for individuals to purchase health insurance.

"Massachusetts has a mandate right now," Obama said. "They have exempted 20 percent of the uninsured because they've concluded that that 20 percent can't afford it. In some cases, there are people who are paying fines and still can't afford it, so now they're worse off than they were. They don't have health insurance and they're paying a fine."

One of the only contentious moments of the evening, this exchange seemed to be the only issue reminiscent of John Edwards’ solution to combat poverty; however, throughout the night Sen. Clinton framed her arguments around the needs of the middle class, a demographic she is trying to increase support from as Sen. Obama’s popularity grows.

And the middle class may be stealing some discussion away from the issue of poverty simply because more people identify with the middle class, according to Sidney Verba, a professor of government at Harvard University.

"The whole issue of inequality—everyone knows it is growing, and it doesn’t excite people," he said. "There are issues that are related like health care but [the candidates] are not focused on income inequality. Edwards was a relatively rare candidate."