Edwards talks about poverty, not affair

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Former U.S. Sen. John Edwards took another tentative step into the public spotlight Tuesday, speaking at Brown University about extreme poverty around the world and urging Americans to get involved in what he called a “fundamental moral issue.”

Edwards, a two-time candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, has struggled to get his message heard since a scandal about an affair he had with a former campaign staffer enveloped his personal life.

During 30 minutes of questions following Tuesday night’s speech, just one person in the audience of nearly 600 came close to asking about the affair, reports Barb Barrett.

A student who said she organized for Edwards on campus and knocked on doors for him in New Hampshire asked whether politicians should be held to higher moral standards than the rest of the public.

The question sent murmurs through the crowd.

“I don’t think it’s for a candidate to decide what’s appropriate,” Edwards said. “It’s something for every American to decide for themselves.”

He added: “I have my own view, which I’m going to keep to myself tonight.”

Read more after the jump.

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He did not address the latest accusations about his past affair with former campaign staffer Rielle Hunter. The National Enquirer, citing unnamed sources, reports in its current issue that Edwards has told his wife, Elizabeth, that Hunter’s 1-year-old daughter is his biological child.

Edwards acknowledged the affair – though denied fathering Hunter’s child -- in an ABC interview last August. He all but disappeared until after the election, then made a speech in November to students at Indiana University for a reported fee of $35,000.

Edwards was invited to Brown as part of a student-run lecture series. Organizers did not disclose how much he was paid for the speech.

Edwards told Brown student journalists in a brief, private gathering before the speech that he would not answer questions about the affair.

In his half-hour speech, Edwards noted some of the ways in which he has spent time in the past six months. He talked of how his youngest children, Jack and Emma Claire, had their tonsils out. He described a December trip to a slum in Haiti and how he helped wrap the bodies of dead children.

Edwards said he wanted to spend his future fighting poverty, though he hinted that he doesn’t expect to tackle the issue as an elected official.

"Probably more important is to work with organizations that are helping on the ground, not just in America but around the world,” Edwards said.