Former Senator John Edwards (D-NC) ran for President in 2004, and focused on a “two Americas” theme of fighting poverty. Edwards is again running for President and is still focused on poverty, as highlighted by his campaign kickoff in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward. While Edwards’ focus on the media-neglicted issue the poverty left in Hurricane Katrina’s wake is admirable ,a deeper analysis shows that sadly, there is no substance to Edwards’ rhetoric – not even regarding Katrina . As we saw here at Dartmouth last month, although Edwards delivers a stirring stump speech, he doesn’t actually offer any solutions.

In his Dartmouth speech, Edwards did a great job explaining the problem in Darfur – but didn’t tell us what he’d actually do to stop the genocide as President. He said we need to stop enabling Iraq – but didn’t tell us what that would entail. He believes we need to redeploy up to 50,000 troops immediately and bring the rest home within a year, but he doesn’t say how he would deal with the resulting escalation in violence.

I’m particularly disappointed on Edwards’ lack of substance concerning New Orleans. I spent fall term volunteering in the city, and the ongoing government incompetence is mind boggling: half the population is gone, two of nine hospitals are fully functioning, FEMA continues to mismanage terrible policies, and the official federally funded program for rebuilding homes has paid only 750 of 120,000 eligible homeowners. Because Edwards has sent hundreds of volunteers to the city and announced his campaign there, voters see him as the one candidate paying attention to the Gulf Coast. But the fact is he hasn’t said a word about what government should actually do to fix the problems. The phrases “New Orleans,” “Gulf Coast,” and “Katrina” do not appear once on his campaign’s issue page, blog frontpage, or homepage. In his Dartmouth speech, Edwards barely mentioned New Orleans – it only got a passing half-sentence while he discussed the broader issue of poverty. In his written reply to the President’s State of the Union address, he did not criticize Bush for failing to mention the Gulf Coast, and in fact did not mention the region himself. In post-SOTU interviews, Edwards only talked about New Orleans when CNN’s Anderson Cooper directly asked him about it–the issue didn’t come up at all with CNN’s Larry King or MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough.

Even his New Orleans campaign announcement contained no specifics or actual solutions. Katrina merely served as a backdrop and a photo-op. He did ask people to volunteer and get engaged, which was good; more volunteers are desperately needed. I’m thrilled someone is issuing that call on a national level, but it’s a call more fitting of a cultural leader than a political one. Political leaders need to offer solutions in a way no one else can. We know how Citizen Edwards feels, but we don’t know what President Edwards would DO. Through his volunteer push and campaign announcement, Edwards pretends to focus on New Orleans, but when he has the chance to actually do something about it, he passes the chance right up. For a man who brought hundreds of student volunteers to the city last spring, this neglect is shocking, unexpected, and depressing.

What little substance Edwards did offer while at Dartmouth was in response to a question about changing the structures that produce poverty – he has ideas about interest rates, “work boxes,” and housing vouchers. He also has good ideas about health care and climate change – but three issues, no matter how important they may be, do not a President make. What’s he going to do on the other issues? Just who is it we’re really voting for? Furthermore, where was this substance in ’04? Why isn’t there more now? Did it really take him this long to develop this little? If so, how can we expect him to react quickly during national emergencies?

Not everything I have to say about John Edwards is negative. He did show refreshing candor at Dartmouth concerning his GLBT-friendly stances – not everyone in the audience liked his position, but he said it anyway, and discussed some inner-personal turmoil. And it is exciting for a major candidate to be pushing these issues – New Orleans, poverty, climate change, health care, and reconciliation with the rest of the world are crucial. Nobody talks about these subjects, so thank God Edwards is forcing the debate. But knowing what to talk about is only a good start: we need ideas, answers, and policies. Given his genuine personal compassion and his stance on poverty, John Edwards would make a wonderful Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, but President is a bit of a stretch.