Return of the populist campaign

Does this message resonate with Americans, especially those who have yet to choose sides in the presidential race? A recent Time/CNN poll has 57 percent of the public (and 63 percent of independents) agreeing that Mr. Bush "pays too much attention to big business."

"A lot of Democrats see this as a new Gilded Age, with a widening gap between wage earners and the elites," says Georgetown University historian Michael Kazin. "Clearly, this sort of heightened populist rhetoric responds to [the perception that] the Bush administration is a throwback to the days before the New Deal."

In the South, which has become more and more Republican in recent decades, populist-sounding Democrats are counting on voters like Charley Raley, who's soured on the GOP. "They've been vacating all our jobs, and now we ain't got no place to go," says Mr. Raley, whose job at a plant in Winnsboro, S.C., was transferred overseas. "These rich people don't care. We need somebody who stands up for the rest of us." In 2003 alone, South Carolina lost more than 22,000 jobs - more than any other state.

As many Americans now rate the economy as their top priority as they do protecting the US against terrorism, according to the Pew Research Center.

Pew also finds other domestic issues are increasingly important to the public: Balancing the federal budget is now a top priority for 51 percent, up from 40 percent last year. Providing healthcare to the uninsured is up to 54 percent from 45 percent.

Meanwhile, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 31 states have had to cut programs for the current fiscal year. Seventeen states - several headed by Republican governors (including Jeb Bush in Florida) - have found it necessary to raise taxes to provide essential services and fill unemployment claims.