Elizabeth Edwards speaks in Bangor

BANGOR – Elizabeth Edwards, wife of Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. John Edwards, assured a Bangor audience Wednesday that her husband and his running mate Sen. John Kerry, care more about protecting the health, safety, jobs, world standing and environment of Americans than protecting the profits of major corporations.

In an effort to win votes in the battleground state of Maine, Edwards fielded audience questions on issues ranging from health care to college tuition to the war on terror. The organized event at the Sea Dog restaurant was Edwards’ first campaign appearance in Maine.

Edwards arrived on the Bangor waterfront via limousine and was greeted by Democratic Rep. Michael Michaud and first lady Karen Baldacci. She was just in time to mingle with a group of Maine senior citizens headed by bus to Canada to purchase low-cost prescription medications. Shaking hands and chatting with the seniors, Edwards commented they were fortunate to live in Maine, where such cross-border drug shopping is feasible.

Still, she noted, if the Bush administration would allow safe reimportation of pharmaceuticals, “You wouldn’t have to ride this bus, except to see the foliage.”

President George W. Bush has said he would support reimportation if regulations could be put in place to ensure the drugs are safe.

Moving indoors to the Sea Dog’s conference room, Edwards was introduced to a crowd of about 200 by Karen Baldacci, who said Mainers could be assured that the Kerry-Edwards team will work to bring down the cost of prescription drugs. “We know they’re on the right side of the issues. … They’re working for the people,” the first lady said.

Edwards praised Gov. John Baldacci, saying the Bangor native’s progressive health policies have won national notice. “There is no stronger governor on the issue of health care than Governor Baldacci,” Edwards said. Still, she said, without federal support, state initiatives can have only limited impact.

Because the recently passed federal Medicare prescription drug benefit specifically prohibits the government from negotiating prices with drug companies, older Americans will continue to pay 150 percent to 250 percent more for medications than Canadians do, Edwards said.

“[The Bush] administration had a choice,” Edwards said. “Either you could get drugs at the lowest possible prices, or the pharmaceutical companies could get the highest possible profits.”

Edwards said a “one fell swoop answer [to the complicated issue of health care] may not be politically available”, so her husband and John Kerry will improve the situation through several initiatives:

. Eliminating a regulatory loophole that excludes private insurers from federal anti-competition restrictions. Changing the regulation would enhance competition for business and help drive down costs, Edwards said.

. Making low-cost health coverage available for small-business employers to offer their workers, through a plan similar to that provided to members of Congress. The “Congressional Plan” would be administered through private insurance companies – much as Maine’s DirigoChoice is being offered through Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield.

. Increasing Medicaid funding to cover low-income children.

. Increasing funding for staffing veterans’ health facilities.

Democrats also support a strong patient bill of rights, she noted, and resist the broad reform proposed by the Bush administration that would cap awards to individuals suing for personal injury.

Should the Democrats win the White House in November, Edwards said her own initiatives as the wife of the vice president will include improving preventive health care, making after-school care more widely available and increasing support to military families.

Several audience questions dealt with the war in Iraq, homeland security and growing anti-American sentiment in the world. Edwards said the Bush administration has squandered the unified sense of purpose that developed in the United States after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, as well as the good will of the international community. America needs to abandon its “sneer and fear” attitude to foreign and domestic policy, she said, “and lead without the divisive tools the current administration has used over and over again.”

Edwards’ responses were interrupted several times by applause from the audience, which included young college students, middle-aged adults and senior citizens.

Thomas Leick, a 20-year-old freshman at University College of Bangor, said he already knows he’s voting for the Kerry-Edwards ticket in November. “I just wanted to hear [Edwards] talk,” he said.

Former chair of the Bangor Democratic Committee, Mary Morse-Dwelley, 53, said she’s committed to seeing George Bush voted out of office. “We have elected by default a president who’s a bully,” she said. “I fear for the safety of America as long as he’s in office.”

Edwards spoke later in the afternoon in Lewiston before heading to Manchester, N.H., where she planned to watch the last of the scheduled presidential debates on television.