Where did the Democrats come up short in the presidential election?
A. With all due respects to Sen. Kerry, the biggest mistake the democrats made was in not nominating a southerner. What has become clear, even in 2000 with Al Gore coming from Tennessee, is that a candidate has to get at least some of the south in order to win, particularly Florida, for example. So your chances electorally increase if you have a southerner on the ticket, a la Bill Clinton. Q. What gave the Republicans the edge? A. One of the things the Republicans did well was in mobilizing deeply religious, evangelical Christians. That group, which traditionally had some power in the Republican primaries, became mainstream, an active component of the Republican Party, which meant re-election for President Bush. I don’t think he would have won Ohio without the evangelical vote. That strategy, which [chief strategist] Karl Rove developed, was brilliant because that was an under-tapped base of the Republican Party. Now the Democrats need to go out and find a parallel for that group, and
