Edwards seems to have jumped the shark. His latest pitch has taken his natural populism over a cliff. It sort of sounds like: The Corporations Are Going To Eat Your Children. Actually what he says is, "We're not going to let corporate greed steal our children's future." Over and over again. There is a strong argument to be made that the natural balance of the American economy has tilted toward the wealthy and the power of entrenched special interests, and needs to be tilted back in the direction of the middle class and poor. Both Clinton and Obama make that argument effectively, and place it in a reasonable context. For example, both say: Yes, the insurance and pharmaceutical industries will try to block universal health insurance, and we're going to have to beat them. Edwards says, "I will never--never!--sit down at a table with them," which is just ridiculous. If he wants to pass universal health insurance, he's going to have to build a coalition that includes or neutralizes much of the business community--if not the insurance and pharmaceutical industries--or it won't pass. As it is, he just sounds desperate, contentious and unreasonable.

Edwards is also wildly irresponsible on trade. He's now saying that trade deals have cost "millions of jobs." They haven't. NAFTA has been a wash, creating as many jobs as have been lost. This is demagoguery--implying that if we just shut down the free trade regime, the global economy is going to go away, and stop taking low-value-added manufacturing jobs to other countries. It raises false hopes among the hardest working Americans, which is just disgraceful. It is also slightly out of date: with the weak dollar, exports represents a sector of the economy poised for real growth. A more responsible candidate, who really had the interests of the working class in mind, would emphasize the need for a stronger social safety net, more help for displaced workers and higher taxes to pay for it. Edwards believes in all that, but he's not saying it these days--he's choosing, instead, to use the heaviest, ugliest weapons in his arsenal.

Joe Klein...bought and paid for.