DECIDEDLY PURPLE. E.J. Dionne Jr. ponders whether Mark Warner will be able to turn purple Virginia blue, and help bump the red/blue divide a little further south. But the thesis of his article is that the Dems can, and will, win these states by putting forth moderate candidates who appeal to suburbanites. "Safe, soothing and very suburban: These could be the characteristics of the new American majority," he writes. But could this new American majority make any major progressive strides? It would be hard for a moderate to pull off much that would be at all perceived as radical to your average swing-voter and be able to rest confident that he'll maintain the support of his home base. So while gaining states that have long-been red will be a boon to the Democratic party as a whole, a real emergence of progressivism seems far off.
--Kate Sheppard
