WASHINGTON – Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama challenged John Edwards’ claim as the anti-poverty candidate on Wednesday, reminding voters of his experience working with the inner-city poor as his rival bemoaned the plight of the downtrodden in rural Appalachia.

The two hit strikingly familiar themes in competing speeches on an issue that doesn’t usually get much attention in modern presidential politics but Democrats have pushed to the forefront.

Obama spoke in the Washington neighborhood of Anacostia while Edwards wrapped up an eight-state poverty tour in Wise, Va., and Prestonburg, Ky. Both invoked a Democratic icon _ Robert F. Kennedy, who drew attention to the country’s poor some four decades ago.

Speaking at the Floyd County courthouse _ the same site where Kennedy ended his poverty tour in 1968, Edwards said he wants “America to remember what he did decades ago. I want you to join us to end the work Bobby Kennedy started.”

Obama alluded to Kennedy’s tour and repeated a question that Kennedy uttered throughout his address: “How can a country like this allow it?”

The first-term Illinois senator argued that he has had a long-standing interest in helping the poor, dating to his first job after college as a community organizer in Chicago. The remark was a veiled jab at Edwards.

“This kind of poverty is not an issue I just discovered for the purposes of a campaign, it’s the cause that led me to a life of public service almost twenty-five years ago,” Obama said.

Edwards, the 2004 vice presidential nominee, said his interest in poverty was not born out of politics. He said his background was so humble that his father had to borrow $50 to bring him home from the hospital and although he eventually became a successful trial lawyer, he continued to fight for the less fortunate in his legal career and as a North Carolina senator and beyond.

“Poverty is the cause of my life,” he said in his prepared remarks. “I worked on it before I got into politics.”

Obama’s first job was working for a coalition of churches on Chicago’s South Side, seeking to help rescue a troubled neighborhood. He has been a state legislator and has taught at a law school.

Before entering politics, Edwards was on the board of Urban Ministries, a faith-based group that helped the poor in the Raleigh, N.C., area. He also established the Wade Edwards Learning Lab in honor of his late son to help disadvantaged kids with their schoolwork.

After losing in 2004, he helped establish a poverty center at the University of North Carolina.

Obama vowed to “retire the phrase ‘working poor’ in our time.” Edwards said he would eliminate poverty within a generation.

Besides trying to one-up each other on their anti-poverty credentials, each also tried to portray himself as the Washington outsider. Both blamed Washington for failing to help the poor.

“The streets here are close to our capital, but far from the people it represents,” Obama said. “They suffer most from a politics that has been tipped in favor of those with the most money, and influence, and power.”

“Washington’s response has been greed is good,” Edwards said in an echo of Michael Douglas’ signature line from the 1987 movie “Wall Street.”

Both also said the problem cannot be solved by Washington alone, but families also must be strengthened. Both candidates promised to fight the move of jobs overseas, raise the minimum wage, invest in education and create transitional jobs.

Obama said the first step he would take as president to fight urban poverty would be to expand a program from New York City to 20 cities nationwide. The program, called the Harlem Children’s Zone, provides training for expectant parents, early childhood education, charter schools, free medical services, meals, crime prevention and job and financial counselors to an entire neighborhood.

He acknowledged that it would cost several billion dollars to expand the program, but said he would monitor the results and try something else if it doesn’t work. The Obama campaign said his entire anti-poverty agenda will cost about $6 billion a year.

“But we will find the money to find the things that work because we can’t afford not to,” he said. “Think of it this way _ the Harlem Children’s Zone is saving a generation of children for about $46 million a year. That’s about what the war in Iraq costs American taxpayers every four hours.”

Associated Press Writer Samira Jafari contributed to this report from Prestonburg, Ky.

On the Net:

http://www.barackobama.com

http://www.johnedwards.com

A service of the Associated Press(AP)