John Edwards for President

"Heroes"
60 second ad run in IA starting Nov 1, 2007.
 

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[Music] Edwards (voiceover and on screen; clips from speech): If you're looking for heroes, don’t look to me.  Don’t look to Elizabeth.  We have support.  We have health care.  We have the American people behind us.

Look to them.  [Applause fades up].  They are the ones who we speak for.  They are the ones that we stand up for.  [Applause fades down].

And Elizabeth and I decided, in the quiet of a hospital room, after 12 hours of tests and after getting very bad news, what we were going to spend our lives doing, for all those that have no voice. 

We’re not going to quietly go away.  Instead we’re going to go out and fight for what it is we believe in. [Applause starts and up].

It is time for our party, the Democratic Party, to show a little backbone, to have a little guts.  To stand up for working men and women.  If we are not their voice they will never have a voice.  [Applause down].

I'm John Edwards and I approve this message.

 

 
Notes:  Edwards kicked off  “American Heroes Week,” Nov. 1-7, 2007, coinciding with launch of this ad.  From the press release:
"The ad features footage of Edwards speaking at a campaign event interspersed with images of hardworking Americans – including retired Iowan farmers Bill and Helen Barrett, Leslie Gilbert, a working mother of four, and Doug Smith, a proud member of the Steelworkers union in Des Moines." 

Real Iowa Heroes Featured in the Ad: 

Leslie Gilbert is a mother of four who lives in Newton, Iowa, and works two jobs, including as a waitress, to help provide for her family.  Her husband, Shane, works as an insulator and they recently purchased their first home. Leslie is going back to school to earn a degree in business so she can get a good job closer to home.

Doug Smith works as a bead builder at the Firestone tire plant in Des Moines.  He is a proud member of the United Steelworkers Local 310.  Doug is an example of the millions of hardworking Americans who make our country strong – men and women who are the backbone of our economy, and deserve a president who will stand up for them.

Bill and Helen Barrett have three kids and nine grandchildren.  They owned their own farm in Seymour, Iowa, for more than 20 years before moving to Des Moines in 2000.  Bill drove school buses in the Des Moines Area until he retired in 2004. They are devoted to their family and their community, and want to make sure that we meet our obligation to the next generation: to give our children and grandchildren a better life than we've had.