Elizabeth Edwards visits Green Bay Elizabeth Edwards, wife of Democratic vice presidential candidate U.S. Sen. John Edwards, shares a light moment with Deanna Alm, 6, of Portage, Mich., following a health care forum Saturday, at Burnham Brook. (AP Photo/John Grap) Lambeau Field and The Lorax make campaign points By Anna Krejci News-Chronicle The wife of the Democratic vice presidential candidate took a load off in the living room of a De Pere family on Sunday and spoke to about 15 women about various campaign issues. Elizabeth Edwards, wife of North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, tried to bring campaign rhetoric to life by comparing the numbers of jobs lost in Wisconsin - 65,000 manufacturing jobs - to the seating capacity at Lambeau Field. "I think sometimes we hear numbers and we get sort of immune to it," she said. "Everyone in that stadium lost their jobs," she said, pointing to a picture of a Lambeau Field full of spectators displayed in the home of Skip Schaeuble, president of a labor union for International Papers in Kaukauna and owner of the Waterview Road home where Edwards visited. Edwards compared the state's job loss situation to Dr. Seuss's story, "The Lorax," where each tree cut down represented a job forfeited. She said the president has not effectively prevented job loss. Education was another topic of discussion. Edison Middle School in Green Bay was threatened to be closed because of students' performance, said Green Bay resident Linda Jolly, who sat with Edwards in the living room. "Why on earth would you take money away from a school that needs help?" She called the No Child Left Behind Act a "disaster." Edwards said Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry will lead the federal government in funding schools' improvements. She also said standardized testing is used because it is an inexpensive way to test children. With a large national deficit, testing would pose a challenge to Kerry as it does to the president, Edwards said. Looking forward to the week's debate between Kerry and the president, Edwards said the debates will work in favor of the Kerry-Edwards campaign if the public can focus on the candidates' performance and plans, see Kerry's "decent," and "honest" nature, see him as someone who has followed the same principles throughout his political career, and recognize his dedication to the issues. In a past visit to Green Bay, Edwards also talked with a panel of women and a largely female audience about health care at the Northeast Wisconsin Technical College campus. She said her focus on female audiences will have a noticeable impact on the campaign. "I think men also share information, but I think probably not to the degree that we're seeing among women, and that's my own personal experience, too," she said. She said the substance of her talks could be ammunition for listeners to spread Kerry-Edwards ideas. Edwards said she learns from the panels she talks with and takes the information back to the campaign, including concerns that the federal government protect worker rights and that families not pay postage on letters to their loved ones serving in war zones, a position that Kerry supports, Edwards said. The chat was a forum for women. "Some of these small groups, it's one of the first times these women are being heard," Skip said. Edwards spoke at a Democratic party fund-raiser in Nashville, Tenn., after her visit in Green Bay. Before coming, she had appeared at a church in Milwaukee. Today she is campaigning for her husband and Kerry in West Virginia.