From today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

The two Americas message - and job loss, acute in Wisconsin, is a part of it - resonates with audiences partly because Edwards peppers it with statistical support, partly because the messenger delivers the message so skillfully. That talent is part of his compelling personal story. Edwards was born in a South Carolina mill town to poor parents who worked their way into the middle class. After college and law school in North Carolina, he became an enormously successful trial lawyer winning suits especially on behalf of injured children. That experience before juries helps to explain his extraordinary political skills.

Edwards is smart, engaging and upbeat, comfortable before any audience and often inspiring. Perhaps most intriguing of all, his optimistic campaign, free of attacks on his Democratic rivals, suggests something important about his character: Here is someone who seems to believe that the power of persuasion doesn't have to include excoriation and the politics of personal destruction. [...]

If Democrats are serious about winning in November, they have two choices at this point. John Kerry would make a strong run at President Bush and might defeat him. But we think John Edwards, with his combination of message and method, may have the stronger legs in this long distance race. [Emph. added]

Forgive the cliché, but you can, in fact, read the rest here.

POSTSCRIPT: As part of what can only be seen as a determined effort to drive down this website's traffic by consistently irritating friends as well as opponents, I'd like to take a moment here to second Kaus's complaints (scroll down to What the Republicans really think) about the unfortunate turn Edwards' message seems to have taken in recent days. The senator's Two Americas populism can only work if it's fundamentally honest and relentlessly sunny; otherwise, it's just Southern-fried Shrumism, and Edwards should be -- and is, I think -- better than that.