On Sunday John Edwards came to Berkeley to give a campaign speech. The audience—a mixture of students and community members—packed the auditorium in the YWCA across the street from campus, and hundreds more listened to his speech on loudspeakers outside. Organizers estimated that 1000 (!) people were in attendance. Cal Dems president Michelle Wasserman introduced Edwards, identifying Cal as the perfect venue thanks to its tradition of political activism and committment to civil rights.

What Edwards talked about, in brief:

• He recognized the anniversary of the Selma march; related firsthand experiences from his childhood in the segregated South; and called social and economic justice the bridge to full civil rights.
• As to solving the global climate crisis, he called for comprehensive action. Why is it, he asked, that George Bush is the last person on earth to recognize the threat of global warming?
• Edwards took responsibility for voting for the Iraq war, calling that decision a mistake. Right now it’s basically a civil war between Sunni and Shia, he said, and we have no business putting our children in the middle of this “meat grinder.”
• He articulated the need to repair America’s image abroad, including a smarter foreign policy and more foreign aid (e.g. intervention in Darfur, drugs to fight AIDS). “For far less money than we’re spending in Iraq, we could pay for public schools for every child in the Muslim world.”
• Our healthcare system is badly broken, he said, and needs to be replaced. How to pay for coverage for every American citizen? Roll back Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy.
• Commending the UC workers for their struggle to get fair wages, Edwards called for a real committment to ending poverty, in part through workers’ rights (e.g. a higher minimum wage, fewer obstacles for people seeking to join a union). He talked about a pilot program through his poverty center which guarantees college tuition for qualified students in an underprivileged community.

Edwards sought to distinguish himself from Democratic rivals by taking a strong progressive position on several of these issues, particularly Iraq and healthcare: “I am the only presidential candidate with a truly substantive, detailed, universal healthcare plan.” He urged his Democratic colleagues, now in the majority in both houses of Congress, to take bold action rather than settling for incremental changes. “Let me say something about our party: Where is our soul?!”

The crowd, needless to say, loved every word.

More coverage on the event from The Chronicle, Oakland Tribune, The Daily Cal, ABC News, and the California Progress Report and Berkeley Bubble blogs.