Bush can adopt an agenda for an "ownership society" that confronts this Kerry/Edwards angle of attack. Its most important element would be private Social Security accounts, allowing people to save and invest for their own retirement. Liberalized IRAs could also increase the number of savers and the amount they save, while private health and education accounts would allow people to save for their own health and educational needs. And Bush could steal a worthy Edwards proposal -- tax credits to help poor people save.
The themes of all policies are ownership (you own your own wealth, which no one can take away), choice (you decide what to do with your money) and opportunity (you get a chance to enjoy the wonder of compound interest and, through stocks, to own a piece of the American economy -- a chance, in short, to get rich). These themes are as winning and all-American as a John Edwards grin.
The election competition, then, would become roughly between punishing the rich and making more people rich. It's the latter goal that accords with traditional American striving. The problem with Edwards is that he is youthful, but dated in his views. He evokes aspiration, but is unsympathetic to one of the main means of promoting it. Through embracing him and his message, Kerry gets stylistic optimism at the price of substantive gloom. Wealth vs. work?
Bring it on.