News-Record.com

The Washington Post has a story today on Joe Trippi's influence on the Edwards campaign. The article rightly notes that Edwards is beginning to sound a lot like Dean did in the 2004 campaign.

Trippi, of course, managed that campaign.

Others say Elizabeth Edwards sees this race as more a cause than a campaign, a belief that makes her and Trippi -- an unapologetic believer in the power of liberal ideals and the overthrow of "transactional politics" -- ideological soulmates.

It's that message -- a fiery, some say angry, populism -- that has drawn attention to John Edwards of late.

One Democratic consultant who has worked with Trippi said the common thread in the majority of the presidential campaigns with which Trippi has been involved is an outrage with the way Washington operates.

I don't know that it would have been a huge surprise to see Edwards turn his campaign more to the Dean model, with or without Trippi's influence.

Edwards had already been hiring elements of Dean's old team and adopting moves from the Dean playbook before Trippi signed on.

Whether the model will work in 2008 has yet to be seen. As the Post itself has noted, the approach has had trouble getting traction.