Bill's wrong here. These aren't Bill Clinton's kind of Dems or voters.

Look with some exceptions (the stunning victories in NH comes to mind), the Dems who did well in tight states were all pretty much social conservatives and economic liberals, guys who don't like open borders and free trade. They also hate large defecits and the Washington culture. It's populism and not conservatism. Those aren't Robert Rubin Dems and they aren't Clintonistas either. And they really are hard to pin down as being left, right, centerists or anything on the convential political map.

So look off the map for a moment. I'd argue the people who helped Dems to victory in PA, NC, OH, MT and so on are a bit different and while they supported Bush from 2000-2005, he was a rebound from the big crush. These are nationalists and populists and while they are often conservative, they would have a hard time with a lot of the conservative movement, namely the libertarian side of it.

So when did Bush lose the oh 15% or so of the American people who hate Washington and its corruption, despise big government, loathe free trade, want to close the borders, hate big business for sending jobs to China and Mexico, love this country and generally hate both parties ? When they decided that Bush put Iraq over Louisiana.

As the icon of these voters would say, would you let me finish ? I think they did. The same Perot voters who sunk 41 just did some big time damage to 43.

I think his remarks were more rhetorical excess on his part than an expression of genuine beliefs.

He's setting the stage for Hillary-not a "centrist," except in comparison to her wild-eyed colleagues in the Dem. Party-to move back to 1600 Pennsylvania avenue.

It's as a simple as that.

Insofar as she has to exploit populist sentiment in order to attain the presidency she'll do so.

It's populism and not conservatism.

I usually equate populism with centrism. The center being where the beliefs of most of the populace lie. Do you think that this is not the right way to think about it?

No, I don't. I think the center is a bit more leave us alone, even libertarian to some extent. They could vote for someone who is an economic moderate and a social liberal like Rudy, the Govenator, and Bill Clinton. The populist is a bit antagonistic, generally being a social conservative and an economic liberal.

That's an interesting way to characterize them. I hadn't even considered the latter as a possibility. When you say, 'social conservative' I think, 'someone who prefers to have a small set of choices from which to choose, vis-a-vis dogma'. When you say 'economic liberal' I think, 'someone who prefers to have a large set of choices to choose, vis-a-vis an open market.' So it gets fuzzy when you have concepts like 'a marketplace of ideas'. So, calling them antagonistic is exactly right.