John Edwards blew through the Windy City yesterday, addressing a gathering of nearly 1,200 people at the Women's Employed working lunch.

Edwards spoke for about 30 minutes, beginning by calling poverty a moral issue which he said had become "the cause of my life." He then told a story about a single mom he met in Kansas City recently who worked full-time for $9.50 an hour but often had to choose between putting gas in her car and heating her home at night. "How can this be in today's America?" Edwards says she asked him.

Edwards used the anecdote as a chance to refer to the phrase "silence is betrayal" from Dr. Martin Luther King's speech at the Riverside Church protesting the Vietnam War on April 4, 1967. Edwards said he felt that on the issues of poverty, healthcare, and the war in Iraq, remaining silent was indeed a betrayal.

Edwards then ran through the outline of his plan for "ending poverty in America," which is the centerpiece of his Presidential campaign and the subject of a recent book he co-edited. He concluded with a plea for everyone to get involved, slightly misquoting Gandhi by saying "you have to be the change you believe in."

There was a brief press conference after the event, which Edwards began by making the following statement about Iraq:

"Today the White House said that the President intended to veto a proposed compromise on Iraq. The Congress has met its responsibility by submitting the president a funding bill on Iraq in support of the troops that had a timetable for withdrawal.

"Congress has done the will of the country, the President is trying to thwart the will of the American people by vetoing this bill. What the Congress should do is submit another funding bill with a timetable for withdrawal. If the President vetoes that, they should stand strong and firm and submit another funding bill with a timetable for withdrawal.

"This president has made it absolutely clear that he cannot not be negotiated with and there is no compromise in him, and we should not be compromising anyway. This is not politics. This is about life and death. This is about men and women whose lives are on the line and it's about war. And the American people have given the Congress a mandate and it's really crucial that the Congress stand up to this president and end this war."

Asked by a local reporter whether he felt Senator Barack Obama has been "forceful enough" on the issue of Iraq, Edwards replied, "I think that's still an open question."

Edwards refused to provide any more details about his consulting contract with the Fortress Investment Group. He responded to a question about the hedge fund by reeling off a litany of other things he's done since leaving office, telling reporters he thinks it is "very difficult to question my commitment to low income families and to the poor," adding, "I'd put my record against anybody on this."