My former employer, The New Republic, has an interesting piece on the rise of John Edwards in Iowa. Reporter Ryan Lizza is on the scene and provides some useful insights and imagery. While not endorsing the Edwards policy agenda in the slightest, I would note that his upbeat rhetoric is far better suited to the American spirit than the nervous, fake-grin faux-populism of Howard Dean, the wackinessof Wesley Clark, the wonkiness of Dick Gephardt, or the dourness of John Kerry, who mentioned yesterday, perhaps for the first time in this campaign, that he had served in Vietnam.