Thank you, John Edwards. [View All]

[smoogatz]

I don't know if anyone here besides me bothered to watch Hillary's speech last night, but I was struck by the degree to which it was different from her usual routine. She actually talked at some length about taking America back from corporations, restoring power to the people, the country belonging to us and not the insurance, banking, oil industries, etc. She sounded almost like a populist, of all things (almost, but hey, it's early in the primaries). In Iowa and then in New Hampshire, Obama also took up a populist theme—blending it with his usual "uniting America" shtick. I could be wrong, God knows, but I'm guessing that the viral spread of the progressive message through the early primaries started with John Edwards. Not being idiots, Obama and now Hillary have siezed on the rhetoric (at least) of progressive-populism, hoping to peel away a few Edwards voters—with evident effect. This is a good thing, I'm pretty sure. I hope Edwards follows through and stays in the race until the convention. He's moving the debate, and for this we owe him our gratitude. And maybe a contribution, so he can keep holding the front-runners' feet to the progressive fire.