What John Edwards learned about poverty

The Democrats’ “Breck Girl”, John Edwards sacrificed a portion of his life to advise a hedge fund so that he could learn about poverty. In an interview with Nedra Pickler of Associated Press, Edwards explained his thought process;

Democrat John Edwards said Tuesday that he worked for a hedge fund between presidential campaigns to learn about financial markets and their relationship to poverty – and to make money too.

Asked if he had to join a hedge fund to learn about financial markets, Edwards replied, “How else would I have done it?”

That question probably explains how clueless Edwards is when it comes to dealing with the middleclass and lower class workers. I can think of thousands of ways to learn about poverty that wouldn’t involve getting paid lawyer fees. Working in a soup kitchen, spend a night in a box in an alley, probably just about anything except working for a hedgefund.

Now, here’s the rest of the story from Chris Cooper of the Wall Street Journal;

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards earned a $479,000 salary in 2006 working for Fortress Investment Group LLC, a New York-based hedge fund, according to financial disclosure forms released yesterday.

The former North Carolina senator, whose campaign is rooted in an appeal to working-class voters, has faced questions about his time spent at the high-paying fund catering to wealthy investors before formally launching his campaign.

On top of the salary he drew as a senior adviser, Mr. Edwards and his wife also hold investments in several Fortress fund pools, the largest of which is valued at between $1 million and $5 million, according to the forms that were filed to meet a May 15 deadline.

So I guess he learned that he’s never gonna be poor as long as he pretends to be a presidential candidate.

Even the Washington Post detects something a little fishy in Edwards’ explanation;

Edwards has faced questions about the hedge fund — where he said he worked only a few days a month — because Fortress owned offshore funds that served as tax havens for investors and because the firm’s portfolio included subprime lenders, which provide high-risk loans that often target minorities. As a candidate, Edwards has railed against both practices. 

So, Edwards doesn’t mind taking a half-mil from people who he claims are sucking the middleclass dry. (I don’t exactly agree with the Post’s assertion that a high-risk loan can target minorities. it’s not like someone on the street hustled some passers-by – someone had to sign something along the line, but I guess this isn’t about loans, is it?)

Edwards is a rich boy, silver spoon, elitist playing at being a common-man type, but half-million dollar part time jobs and $400 haircuts tell a different story.

Category: Politics