It's easy to see this ad as the handiwork of Edwards' new netroots consultant, Joe Trippi. Trippi made  Howard Dean a netroots hero in 2004 and is working to do the same for Edwards.

Trippi believes campaigns should fully embrace and unleash the energy and passion of the netroots, not treat us as an ATM as other campaigns do (Hillary are you listening?). And this ad embraces the netroots almost as much as Ned Lamont's historic ads that featured Kos & Co.

Of course there are dangers to unleashing the netroots, because the GOP-controlled Corporate Media hates us and will do everything they can to destroy us and the candidate we support - just as they did to Howard Dean in 2004.

Trippi's ad avoids the obvious peril of featuring a particular blogger like Kos who can be attacked for a published comment that is controversial, no matter how old or irrelevant. Clearly Edwards learned this lesson from the recent Marcotte/McEwen debacle.

But without a famous blogger, the Edwards ad has remarkable power - the power of honesty and directness from ordinary citizens.

So congratulations to Trippi for a brilliant ad - and to John Edwards for hiring him.

I hope all the other candidates empower their netroots consultants to create even more powerful ads, because the candidate who genuinely empowers and inspires the netroots will sweep to victory in both the primaries and the general election.