Marathon Pundit: Kentuckians not optimistic on Edwards visit, Obama reacts

As part of his "poverty tour," John Edwards was in Whitesburg, Kentucky today, a town near the Virginia border.

Depending on your point of view, Edwards was either following in the foot steps of Robert F. Kennedy's celebrated 1968 tour of Appalachia--or he was shamelessly copying RFK's idea.

But as the Lexington Herald-Leader pointed out Wednesday morning, politicians, such as Lyndon Johnson, Bill Clinton, and now Edwards come and go, but the poverty, although it isn't as abject now, remains.

Paul E. Hall, director of the Kentucky River Area Development District said:

John Edwards coming to Whitesburg, I don't think it will amount to a hill of beans. I hope I'm wrong, but it didn't make a difference when everyone else came.

Barack Obama today focused on urban poverty, not on Chicago's Far South Side where he once was a commutity organizer, but in Washington's Anacostia neighborhood in southeastern Washington DC.

Said Obama:

This kind of poverty is not an issue I just discovered for the purposes of a campaign. It's the cause that led me to a life of public service almost 25 years ago.

So it's come to this: Two top Democratic candidates fighting over poverty credentials. Hilla-drawly will be next, I'm sure.

Anacostia does have some good news coming its way. The new Washington Nationals baseball park will be there, it opens next year. Unlike other sports stadiums, there are eighty games that will be played at the new park.

Related posts:

Another Democrat sentenced in Kentucky vote buying case

Abandoned horses in Eastern Kentucky

Cumberland Gap: Where the West was first won

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