Despite steady snowfall that is normally enough to cripple southern traffic, a couple-few hundred loyal John Edwards fans made it out to his Atlanta visit on Saturday the 19th.  In the house of labor at the IBEW local 613 auditorium, Edwards was right on message with his usual stump speech about strengthening working families and the middle class by supporting organized labor -- and by standing strong against "moneyed interests."  On a  few occasions, Edwards highlighted the multi-million dollar salaries of corporate executives in stark contrast to the wages of working class Americans who, Edwards argued, are not being served by those corporations.  The  poignant example of Nataline Sarkisyan, who died after her family's health insurance provider initially denied coverage for a liver transplant, was retold at Edwards' Atlanta rally as it has become a regular part of his campaign's message.

Edwards told your intrepid Street Teamer that he believes his focus on issues will be enough to woo young voters back from his more popular competitor from Illinois, who seems to have generated quite a bit of momentum among young and first-time voters.  Appropriately enough, the first thing he cited in his message to young voters was a staple of Obama campaign literature: "change."  He followed that up with specifics like ending the war in Iraq,  the crisis in Darfur, global warming, and accessible college education as issues important to young people.  Two Young Democrats in attendance agreed that Edwards' labor-oriented and populist agenda ought to resonate with young voters, provided they have a chance to hear the message.

With "Tsunami Tuesday" only two weeks away and the Edwards campaign already playing down expectations in his birth state of South Carolina this Saturday -- and nary a first-place finish under Edwards' belt yet -- time to get that message through to those young voters is a precious commodity.

In the realm of technology -- which I promised to cover on top of the local beat -- Edwards talked about opposing the construction of any new nuclear power plants, and even calling for a moratorium on building any new coal-fired power plants until the technology is developed to deal with their carbon emissions.  On his campaign website, Edwards proposes spending $1 billion a year on research to clean up coal plant emissions and sequester the carbon dioxide underground.  This would be a substantial increase of President Bush's 2000 campaign pledge to spend $2 billion over ten years.