Click below for a couple excerpts from John Edwards‘ speech tonight at the Disneyland Hotel. I’ll be posting more on the event here as soon as I write a story for the paper and for the Register home page. The event is still going on, with reporter Brian Joseph on hand to phone in with updates.

– Martin Wisckol

“At the end of the day, what’s at stake in this election is a very simple thing: whether we’re going to live in a moral, fair and just America, where everyone has a chance. Whether American is going to lead in a moral, fair and just world.

“To paraphrase Ghandi, you have to be the change that you believe in. The idea that you can vote in the election and the next president – including me – is going to solve all your problems is a fantasy. The truth is that the power in America is not inside the beltway in Washington, D. C. The power in America is in communities just like this.

“I’ve seen the great movements in America history in my lifetime. I grew up in the civil rights movement. I know where it started. It didn’t start in the Oval Office. It started in communities, in college campuses where young people with conscience, strength and backbone stood up and marched and spoke out and changed this country.

“The same people helped end the long and bloody war in Vietnam. The same people worked to end the apartheid regime in South Africa. We can feel that movement happening right now across America with this war in Iraq. If we really believe that we need change, you can’t wait for somebody else to do it for you.

“I’ve listened to Bush about as little as I can get away with. But when I listen to him, this is what I hear: ‘Stay home. Watch television. Dick Cheney and I will take care of you. I don’t want that crowd taking care of me. First of all, I don’t trust them. Second, that’s not America.”

***

“There are many criteria for determining who the next president of the United States is going to be. All of these policy ideas matter. But the most important thing, when we’re looking for the next president, is we must have a president we can trust. We must have a president who is honest and sincere and trustworthy.

“The reason is that the trust relationship between America and this president has been destroyed in the last seven years. The trust relationship between the president of the United States and the rest of the world has been destroyed.

“Without trust, without an honest president who’ll tell you the truth even when it’s hard, even when it’s bad, none of the rest of it matters.”

Posted in: Candidates' OC visits • John Edwards |

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