Edwards is protectionist because he has seen first hand the effects of globalization on his home state as one textile mill and furniture mill after another has moved overseas, and as the tech jobs with IBM, Nortel, Lucent, etc, have been outsourced overseas.   

I like his talk, but not his walk.   As best I can tell, outside of the courtroom, he is ineffective, and has not demonstrated any leadership capabilities that suggest he could effectively lead congress or influence public opinion to put his ideas into action in the face of anything but clear consensus. And clear consensus is not likely. I was very disappointed in his performance as US Senator, believed he betrayed those of us who elected him by his voting record in Congress on significant issues, and the limited dealings I had with his congressional staff were significant for the ineptitude of his operations.   As a social worker I did not see any effect at all that he had as head of the Center on Poverty, Opportunity and Work (or whatever it was called) at the law school at UNC-Chapel Hill after the last election. Assuming the next president is a Democrat and the next congress is also a Democrat majority (and that may be assuming a lot,) the President is going to still need to be a skillful Wheeler-Dealer who can keep his eye on the prize of his agenda and not just his personal power-base. I don't think he gets the difference.   The North Carolina primary is not until May, but at this point, I doubt Edwards will win the primary here in his home State.    If he ends up the Democratic nominee, I'll vote for him, but I think he would be the least effective President of the three main Democratic candidates.

I'm leaning more and more toward Obama because I think he has the best chance of developing, as an elected official a power-base that incorporates to at least some small extent, the American electorate, as opposed to simply corporate and monied interests.   Both as a candidate and as a President, he may have the capacity to lead the common people of our country to experience themselves as having power, and to act like they are enfranchised, thus asserting some power that is independent of the big money interests.