"What we do for each other says something about who we are," Edwards said, speaking at the Thankful Baptist Church as he kicked off Half in Ten, a new effort to reduce the poverty rate by 50 percent during the next decade. "It says something about what our character is . . . the kind of country we want to live in."

The campaign is a joint project of the Center for American Progress Foundation; ACORN, which organizes activists in low-income communities; the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and the Coalition on Human Needs. Its aim is to advocate federal and state policies that will help people get out of poverty, including expansion of earned-income tax credits and increases in the minimum wage.

Edwards, former North Carolina senator who was the Democrats' nominee for vice president in 2004, made poverty a central theme of his 2008 campaign for president, which he suspended Jan. 30 after lagging in the early primaries.

He has not endorsed either Barack Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton in their bid for the Democratic nomination. There was no chance today for him to clarify ambiguous remarks he made about his preference because Edwards declined to speak with reporters after the event.

He said he has had "positive conversations" with all three of the remaining contenders, including the presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain, about the importance of tackling poverty. He also told the audience, "I wish I was one of them" – referring to the presidential finalists.