Fresh off having a volunteer staffer drop his name to cut in line for a PS 3 — at a Raleigh Wal-Mart, no less — professional Wal-Mart basher, poverty pimp and UNC administrator who’s Not Running For President and Isn’t Being Political We Swear John Edwards has engaged in a new round of Wal-Mart embarrassment. Our buddy Drew Cline at the Manchester (NH) Union Leader gives the hilarious details:

Former Sen. John Edwards is to spend an hour at the Manchester Barnes & Noble tonight promoting his new book. We find his choice of venue very interesting.

In Manchester, the local Wal-Mart store sits right behind the Barnes & Noble. It has more floor space, a parking lot several times the size of Barnes & Noble’s, and is easier to access by car or public transportation.

But Edwards would not be caught dead inside a Wal-Mart. Saying that the company pays its employees too little, Edwards has embarked on an anti-Wal-Mart crusade. He instructs his staff members and all Americans not to shop at Wal-Mart.

“Wal-Mart makes plenty of money. They need to pay their people well,” Edwards said at a Pittsburgh anti-Wal-Mart rally in August.

So naturally Edwards is holding his book signing at Barnes & Noble instead of Wal-Mart. Which is too bad for his anti-low-wages campaign, because in Manchester Wal-Mart pays hourly employees more than Barnes & Noble does.

The Barnes & Noble where Edwards will hawk his book pays $7 an hour to start. The Wal-Mart that sits just yards away pays $7.50 an hour. … Asked back in January what he thought would be an appropriate minimum wage, Edwards told The New York Times, “My view is it should be $7.50 an hour, and I can make a great argument for it being a lot higher than that.”

Hat tip: The Lockerroom.