Populist Message Grows Louder As Caucus Approaches

As Iowans kick off the unusually tight U.S. presidential nominating contest tonight, they will offer the first real test of whether a populist message can resonate in the 2008 campaign.

In the frantic closing days, as candidates have touted their résumés and torn down their opponents, two leading contenders from each party -- Democrat John Edwards and Republican Mike Huckabee -- have ramped up their anticorporate, anti-Wall Street rhetoric.

Mr. Huckabee's campaign represents a new challenge to the historically business-friendly Republican Party, and so far none of his rivals have picked up his rhetoric. But Mr. Edwards is tapping into a long tradition of Democrats' receptivity to working-class appeals, and his main competitors are scrambling to echo the populism as economic anxiety has intensified among voters.

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