If I were a Democrat, his piece would be the most depressing thing I’ve read for a while. I am not at all convinced that a sensible-centrist, deficit-reducing, bond-market-friendly fiscal policy is the political winner Brooks thinks it is. Clinton didn’t run that way in 1992. Brooks says that Kerry will be “incorporating the policies of the center with the anti-plutocrat language of the left.” Isn’t this what Al Gore tried in 2000–supporting nothing more radical than “gun safety” and a “patient’s bill of rights” while also railing about “the people vs. the powerful”? Gore won the popular vote, of course. But not many people think that merely re-running his campaign is a good idea in 2004, and if Brooks thinks so he’s not saying.