Edwards's wife backs Clinton on healthcare
John and Elizabeth Edwards are staying on the sidelines of the Democratic nomination fight, but she let it be known yesterday that she prefers Hillary Clinton's healthcare plan - a plug that could be the closest the Edwardses will get to an endorsement.
Elizabeth Edwards, an outspoken advocate on healthcare issues, said Clinton's proposal is more likely to reach the estimated 47 million Americans without healthcare coverage.
Clinton and Barack Obama have been jockeying on the issue for months - Clinton pushing a plan requiring people to obtain insurance with subsidies so everyone can afford coverage, and Obama focusing more on affordability to achieve universal coverage, arguing that people won't get insurance unless they can pay for it.
"You need that universality in order to get the cost savings," Edwards said on ABC's "Good Morning America." "I think they both have the same goal; I just have more confidence in Senator Clinton's policy than Senator Obama's on this particular issue."
Both candidates have courted Edwards since he dropped out of the race. When Clinton pledged last week to appoint a poverty czar to her Cabinet if she is elected, many saw that as reaching out to Edwards, who has made fighting poverty his calling and who, along with former vice president Al Gore, is perhaps the highest-impact uncommitted Democrat. His home state, North Carolina, holds a key primary on May 6.
Elizabeth Edwards also said that she wouldn't be upset if the nomination battle went all the way to the August national convention and that Clinton and Obama would be a great joint ticket.
