Blogger Mark Stricherez interviews Bill Clinton on the changes in the Democratic party post-1968. And then offers some post- interview thoughts. This one, which speaks to the role of values in elections, struck me as especially interesting:
Mr. Clinton's best point was his last one: that Republicans cannot win by running solely on cultural conservatism. He's right about that. Witness the failed gubernatorial campaign of Jerry Kilgore, who ran on support for the death penalty and little else. Kilgore offered no positive program for voters or even anything substantative. Very few candidates running in a close race can win by running on cultural issues. Consider the counter-example of President Bush. He ran in 2000 on a campaign that featured reform of the public schools, and it helped him get elected. Then before the 2004 race, he signed the Medicare prescription drug benefit, and it helped him win re-election. There's a pattern there.
