John Cox campaigns in Iowa City over breakfast

Note: This article originally appeared in the Iowa City Press-Citizen: John Cox campaigns in Iowa City over breakfast

Friday, July 20, 2007

By Stephanie Wu
Iowa City Press-Citizen

"You can tell I'm not Barrack Obama in attracting crowds," said John Cox, vying for the Republican presidential nomination, to a group of four people attending his campaign stop at the Old Capital Cafe in Iowa City Friday morning.

Cox, a Chicago business man and former executive officer of Jay's foods, expressed the country's need for an unknown leader from the private sector.

"My campaign isn't a sound bite campaign. We're going to give you ideas. I think history is full of long shots. Look at what we've elected--well-known names and career politicians. What good has that done us? I think it's about time to get the private sector involved," he said.

Spoken like a true fiscal conservative, Cox proposed to eliminate the federal income tax and to replace it with a consumption tax, by way of the Fair Tax, which would tax goods and services instead.

According to Cox, this plan would encourage Americans to save and reduce wasteful consumption.

On the environment, Cox said he would diversify the United States' energy sources by increasing wind, solar and nuclear energy.

"The idea that 90% of our transportation energy is from oil is disturbing. We're funding people like (Iranian President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad and (Venezuelan president Hugo) Chavez," he said.

Speaking on Iraq, Cox proposed to apply a reconstruction process similar to the post-World War II Marshall Plan to build Iraq's economy.

"Our troops would be home by early next year if we get that country stabilized. What do you think would happen if the Iranian people looked up and saw prosperity blooming to the west? Prosperity is the best foreign policy weapon we have," he said.

Cox also stressed the importance of privatizing energy, medicine and land.

Using the evolution of the cell phone as an example, Cox said the private sector would provide far more innovation in land and energy conservation than the government.

"I like his vision for energy independence. If you have someone who can carry through what he's saying--not putting your eggs in one basket, diversifying our energy sources and using private enterprises to invest--then yes, I like that," said Iowa City resident Douglas Smith.

Smith, who had not heard of Cox before the event, said he attended because he wanted to know what different candidates were running.

As a British expatriate, Smith said he'd seen the horrors of nationalized healthcare in England and is interested in a candidate who will incorporate more of the private sector into healthcare.

Though Cox did speak about privatizing healthcare and preventing insurance companies from dropping the seriously ill from coverage, Smith said it might be difficult for Cox to win the Republican nomination.

"But if you look at previous primaries, sometimes dark horses come through," he said.

Copyright ©2007, Iowa City Press-Citizen.