EDWARDS AND POLICIES. According to First Read, this week's New York Times Magazine has a piece on Edwards and poverty which concludes, in part, that "Edwards came away from the 2004 campaign with a critical insight: campaigns are about who you are, not what policies you propose." Given that he's been running his campaign off a series of bold, highly-detailed, well-publicized policy initiatives, that seems like the opposite of what he concluded. In my talks with the guy, I got the sense that the revelation was subtler: That policies need to fit a larger narrative rather than just check a box. As Mark Schmitt likes to say, it's not what you say about the policies, but what the policies say about you. Edwards has been adopting and featuring surprisingly expansive, surprisingly progressive policy ideas as a way of underscoring his campaign's larger narrative about its freedom from consultants, uncommong courage, willingness to take on the big issues, etc. But the policies have been absolutely integral to the pitch, which is why they've been so detailed, and so early. --Ezra Klein
