Edwards, channeling RFK, says poverty 'our responsibility'

(AP photo)

From Jenn Abelson, Globe staff

PRESTONSBURG, Ky. -- Standing this afternoon on the steps of the Floyd County Courthouse, the same place Robert Kennedy concluded his poverty tour in 1968, John Edwards said he doesn't deserve to be compared to his political hero.

Edwards, ending his three-day poverty tour through 12 cities in eight states, said, "The reason I am here is because I want America to remember what he did decades ago. And I want America to join us, all of us, to end the great work that Bobby Kennedy started, because that's our responsibility."

Since 1968, Floyd County has remained one of the poorest counties in the nation. As part of his "Road to One America" tour, Edwards told the hundreds gathered in front of the courthouse, some spilling into the street, that America has its greatest economic inequality since the Great Depression. He again drew on one of his favorite lines on the stump about there being "two Americas."

One, he said, is in Washingon, "for the lobbyists, for the special interests, for the powerful, for the big multinational corporations. And then one for everyone else. I'm here today to declare that their America is over."

Edwards, who trails rivals Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in fund-raising and in most national polls, has made fighting poverty the centerpiece of his campaign. As Edwards wrapped up his tour today in Kentucky, Obama delivered his own speech on inner-city poverty in Washington.