Krugman's take on populist tide

Paul Krugman has an interesting analysis of why John Edwards seems to be winning the "electability" race in the Democratic Presidential primaries campaign:

There’s a strong populist tide running in America right now. For example, a recent Democracy Corps survey of voter discontent found that the most commonly chosen phrase explaining what’s wrong with the country was “Big businesses get whatever they want in Washington.”
And there’s every reason to believe that the Democrats can win big next year if they run with that populist tide. The latest evidence came from focus groups run by both Fox News and CNN during last week’s Democratic debate: both declared Mr. Edwards the clear winner.

People in this country are simply fed up with the greed and corruption that infects so much of what goes on in our nation's capital. Krugman is absolutely right when he suggests that the surest route, to a Democratic landslide in 2008, is to rally behind someone who has spent his entire career fighting big-money interests-- John Edwards.

I've read more than a few bloggers, sympathetic to Edwards, criticize his campaign for operating under the truly cumbersome restraints that go along with receiving matching federal funds. These criticisms miss the whole point of Edwards' appeal. Its not about raising huge mountains of cash-- something Senators Clinton and Obama are able to do better than John Edwards-- its about rousing huge numbers of voters that don't have a lot of cash. These voters, liberal, moderate, and conservative alike, are united in their strong desire to have their own champion in the White House. Edwards understands this, and that is the reason he has the best shot of becoming our next Democratic President.