ONE’s Marine Michael Castaldo - coming off the heels of a great engagement with Rudy at Chowderfest - was able to attended a rally for Sen. Edwards last week and sent me this:

“First the back-story… former Senator Edwards was traveling with his wife Elizabeth today and visited five different towns here in New Hampshire. I was able to catch up with him in Rochester. After helping set up chairs for the expected large crowd I went to work handing out brochures and ONE bands to the assembling supporters and guests. Many of my friends from the press were there as well - cheering on the ONE Campaign as usual. After banding the staff and securing a seat near where the senator would be speaking, I waited. When the Senator arrived it was his wife that led the way. I was able to offer her a ONE band which she put on as she told me what a big supporter John was.

The Senator spoke about the war in Iraq, health care, and global warming and then offered to take questions. The questions were mostly on the same topics covered in his short speech until the last…

For the last question, a young woman from Dover asked Senator Edwards, “What would you do as President to improve America’s global reputation”.

The Senator started by saying he thought ending the war in Iraq was a important first step, but that America needed to lead the way in providing AIDS medication and extreme poverty relief to Africa, Latin America, and Indonesia and that this was the way to secure America’s future and show the world America’s greatness! “The world expects us to lead the way” he said. It was then that Elizabeth got his attention and pointed to me.

I offered him a ONE band which he then held aloft for the crowd and said “If you do not know about the ONE Campaign you should…These people are leading the way to restore Americas image…I am gunna put this band on right now and I urge you all to do the same. Please stand up. (He said pointing to me.)

“These people are at every campaign stop making sure that we candidates know that restoring America’s reputation is vital to our national security. It is not just about that though - ending poverty is the humane thing to do”.

With that he ended his speech.

I thanked Mrs. Edwards repeatedly and was able to get in position for the photo op just before he boarded the bus.

Semper fidelis,

-Michael Castaldo, ONE Marine”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 4th, 2007 at 3:36 pm and is filed under Sen. John Edwards, New Hampshire, ONE Vote 08. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.