Published: 12/15/07, 7:25 AM EDT

MANCHESTER, Iowa (AP) - It was a family affair for the Edwards clan on Friday. Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards was taking questions from more than 100 people packed into a small bar, when his wife, Elizabeth, showed up just as a woman was asking about poverty.

Edwards momentarily lost his focus, then smiled as he explained: "I noticed my wife standing behind you and I got distracted."

"Thank you, sweetie," Elizabeth Edwards replied.

She said she had been doing some Christmas shopping and that it was difficult to find toys not made in China. There have been numerous recalls in recent months on products from that country.

"We were trying to buy a wide variety of toys for a wide variety of ages, and it is extraordinarily difficult," she said. "Maybe if we had a president who led on this, there would be an impetus" for businesses to try and stock U.S.-made toys and boost that industry.

Edwards added that the United States should have country of origin labeling and must get tougher on its trade partners.

"It's going to stop when America and the president of the United States stops cow-towing to these people," he said. "I mean, what we need to be doing is being much tougher on people like the Chinese, (who are) sending millions of dangerous Chinese toys into America."

Edwards was joined on the trip by family members, and at the start of the event in Manchester introduced his young children Jack and Emma Claire to the crowd.

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Let me ask, dont this sound like you and your neighbors and friends talking about American policies?

This doesn't sound like your average politician talking. Maybe you dont agree with all his policies, I dont, but doesn't it sound like every thread here and the concerns you hear SO many people discuss every day!

Sure he's got money! He also has roots, and out of every candidate running, I believe he is the only one that hasn't forgot his raising's. He still remembers being raised by parents that lived on textile pay! One of the first of our jobs to be outsourced!

I say, one vote, one candidate. I believe John Edwards is for real, and that is what we need! All the others will be exactly that, One of the OTHERS!!!!

Unless your afraid of change for the better!!!

still dont know have to see how it plays out.last one said he would do lots of thing i waitting.......................

Fanta my friend
Yes he sounds just like a politician....I can just see him inspecting every toy coming in from china as president..where will he find time to run the country?
Blaming the President for dangerous toys is pathetic. It is up to Mattel, Has Bro etc...American companies and their QA departments that use Chinese manufactuing...not the president.I think the average person who is finding it difficult to find safe toys blames profit hungry companies for the woes...not the president...and you of all people know it is up to Congress to pass legislation on these issues...no wonder this congress has the lowest approval rating since these figures have been kept. As for John Edwards...he may be a nice guy, and he may also make a decent president...but he is just as "political" as the rest of them

Redwine,
We will make a JE supporter out of you yet!!

Last Presidential Elections
Voters;
By Income levels;

under $15k-$200k+

Kerry 63% 35%
Bush 36% 63%

There is a huge disparity here, and I thought
must be education levels then....
Then I saw this!



By Education;

No HS-Postgraduate Study

Kerry 50% 47% 46% 49% 46% 55%
Bush 49% 52% 54% 49% 52% 44%

Hmm almost dead even except for post graduates!!
What happened?

"Corporate greed and political calculation have taken over our government and sold out the middle class," Edwards said. "That is wrong. It doesn't say 'life, liberty and the pursuit of endless corporate profits' in the Declaration of Independence."

Edwards said he would fight for the middle class against special and entrenched interests in Washington.

"We have a fight in front of us, we have a fight for the future of this country," he said. "We need someone who is going to step into that arena on your behalf, someone who is ready for that fight, somebody who has got it inside, somebody who has the toughness and strength and fight.

"Brothers and sisters, I was born for this fight," he told the more than 500 people jammed into a high school gym to hear him.

Edwards also is making the case that he's best positioned to win the White House in November, pointing to polls that show him ahead of all the leading Republican presidential contenders.

"I was the only Democrat who beat every Republican in head-to-head matchups," Edwards said, telling backers to use that argument with wavering voters. "Make sure they know that the data is powerful, that I'm a winner. Say it that way."