A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days

Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, a likely Democratic presidential candidate in 2008, delivered a 15-minute, blistering attack to warm applause from Democrats and union organizers here on Wednesday. But Mr. Biden's main target was not Republicans in Washington, or even his prospective presidential rivals.

It was Wal-Mart, the nation's largest private employer.

Among Democrats, Mr. Biden is not alone. Across Iowa this week and across much of the country this month, Democratic leaders have found a new rallying cry that many of them say could prove powerful in the midterm elections and into 2008: denouncing Wal-Mart for what they say are substandard wages and health care benefits.

Six Democratic presidential contenders have appeared at rallies like the one Mr. Biden headlined, along with some Democratic candidates for Congress in some of the toughest-fought races in the country.

"My problem with Wal-Mart is that I don't see any indication that they care about the fate of middle-class people," Mr. Biden said, standing on the sweltering rooftop of the State Historical Society building here. "They talk about paying them $10 an hour. That's true. How can you live a middle-class life on that?"

Some people may very well not be able to live a middle class life on that. Those people are therefore free not to take jobs at Wal-Mart and to take jobs at places where they can and will be paid more. Why this constantly has to be repeated is beyond me.

To be sure, no one should think for a moment that the whole of the Democratic Party is behind this round of demagoguery. Quite the contrary:

Their alliance with the anti-Wal-Mart campaign dovetails with their emphasis in Washington on raising the minimum wage and doing more to make health insurance affordable. It also suggests they will go into the midterm Congressional elections this fall and the 2008 presidential race striking a populist tone.

Some Democrats expressed concern about the direction the party was heading, saying it could turn back efforts by such party leaders as former President Bill Clinton to erase the image of the party as anti-business and scare off corporations that might be inclined to make contributions.

Quite so, leading one to wonder what exactly the strategy is here. While we endeavor to divine how angering the business contingent is good for Democrats in the 2006 and 2008 elections, however, can we stop with the seeming thought that Wal-Mart is the only place on the planet for people to work at and if Wal-Mart doesn't pay "appropriate" wages (however those are defined), millions of Americans will have no choice whatsoever but to go into stark and horrific poverty?

Because that does seem to be the implication of these attacks. And that implication is just plain untrue.