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Edwards: Money Doesn't Matter

(CBS)
From CBS News' Aaron Lewis:

EMMETSBURG, IOWA -- At a campaign event in Emmetsburg, a gentleman opened up the Q and A session saying that Michelle Obama told them at a recent event that John Edwards would not have enough money to go on and win. And he asked Edwards to respond.

And Edwards teed up and hit the political equivalent of a 350-yard Tiger Woods-esque drive.

"We're not gonna have an auction in Iowa. We're gonna have an election," said Edwards. "We're gonna decide who the best candidate is, not who the person is who can raise the most money."

Edwards continued for another 4 minutes to tell how frightening it must be to the other candidates that someone like him who's spending a fraction of what he's spending is still competitive.

"When you're resorting to arguments about how much money somebody has, you're in a bad place," said Edwards. "If they have more money, and the money's what matters, why are they worried about me?"

He added later in his monologue, "I just want to say how unbelievably weak it is to be arguing that you should be the candidate because you have more money than the other candidate. Does that convince anybody that that's who you should caucus for? Because you shouldn't even be here if that's what you're looking for."

After closing his thoughts, Elizabeth stood up and grabbed the microphone.

"You may not be surprised but I am surprised and disappointed in Michelle," she said before handing the mic back to her husband.

Mr. Edwards was left speechless for a long moment, with one of those "there goes Elizabeth again" looks on his face, then smiled and asked the audience who had the next question.

Perhaps in a preemptive attempt at damage control before actually taking the next question, Edwards said:

"I want to say clear to every Iowa caucus goer who can hear me through those cameras or who can hear me in person: I know that I've been getting a lot of attention from the other two candidates in the last two days. My campaign is not about them and I am not interested in attacking them. I am interested in doing what I want to do for America and running a positive campaign. And that is exactly what I'm gonna do."

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