I sense a trend! At present, one can still hold out hope that a series of victories by a forthrightly populist candidate will force the villagers to recognize that this sort of rhetoric has some appeal. But when your most radical proposal is a pilot program to replace drug patents with cash prizes, there's just nothing terribly "leftist" about your candidacy.
I think the Obama approach might stand a better chance of getting something done in the very short term, but Democrats can only get 60 Senate seats under the rosiest of rosy scenarios. Thus an Edwards presidency where the first Congressional session focuses on "beating the big oil companies"—a fight with better odds thanks to stronger public support, elite support among Republicans, and a larger number of pro-CO2-regulation institutions—only to "lose to the big drug companies and big insurance companies" might help rally the public to win a few more seats in 2010 and then "beat the big drug companies and big insurance companies".
