John Kerry is a liberal. He's not always the best liberal, and he may have inscrutable reasons behind a whole lot of his votes (well, they're not inscrutable if you think he's a political opportunist, but I digress), but he's still got a generally liberal voting record.
The DLC is conservative. They've been very clear in their disgust for any voter who reflexively votes Democratic. This includes, but is not limited to: activists, Northerners, urbanites, black people, gays, and members of organized labor. They also apparently have problems with people who drink coffee and drive Volvos (the Cadillac of Automobiles!)... but that's either an absurd level of over-specialization or a sign of dangerous mental illness. Which isn't unlikely considering we're talking about Al From. In any case, From's conception of "strategy" has largely been structured by Clinton's "Sistah Souljah" moment in which he dissed an African-American rapper, thereby proving that he was able to attack black culture even though he expected African-Americans to vote for him. A rousing Democratic message indeed. Basically From (and his followers like Mickey Kaus or the TNR staff) views this rejection of long-standing Democratic groups as the height of political courage.
Kerry is a Northern urbanite with an activist background who has been elected many times by appealing to activists, black people, gays, and members of organized labor. I see a problem on the horizon.
The two were united in their disgust for Dean. While Kerry may be a liberal, he's still a member of the Dem establishment in good standing. He has no desire to see it reworked from the ground up. Neither does Al From. But that common enemy seems to be very close to being vanquished.
From hates populism. Hates it. When Gore dared to mention it at the 2000 convention, the DLC apparatus went so nuts that they basically forced him to drop it. IMHO, that was a mistake-- his poll numbers dropped soon after that first "reinvention". In a shocking turn of events, Gore couldn't bring them back up no matter HOW many Democratic constituencies he vowed to reject when he was in office. He just couldn't think of a rejection that was courageous enough (I KNEW he should have threatening to nuke San Francisco). After 2000, From basically said Gore was just too much of a raging Leftist and held up Smokin' Joe Lieberman as his paragon of Democratic thought. As someone who's spent his life bravely fighting against "filthy" Hollywood films, "opportunistic" trial lawyers, "weak-kneed" doves, "immoral" gays, and "unfair" affirmative action, Lieberman is probably the most courageous Democrat since Zell Miller!
Kerry's populism may not be very genuine. He's got a long and proud history with corporate money, and the entire populist architecture of his campaign is lifted from Edwards and Dean. That's not a bad thing necessarily... if he keeps it up then at least those ideas will be represented in the general election. I think the evidence is clear that those are the concepts Americans WANT to hear from their Democratic candidate. It's those ideals-- not simply deficit reduction or vague promises to get around to maybe providing some healthcare or something one of these days-- that inspire people to go the polls. Both swing voters AND Dems!
The problem is that DLC and DLC-aligned commentators have already started swinging at Kerry to keep him from accepting this populist conclusion. Shortly after Iowa, TNR began running articles asking "Is Kerry Electable?"; "Is Kerry Qualified?"; "Is Kerry a Lying Sack of Hypocritical Shit?". For Deaniacs, this seemed like a miraculous conversion-- suddenly the magazine that had been so mean to them was being mean to their competitor! Mickey Kaus, another influential conservative Dem, has also taken to pounding Kerry, attacking his rhetoric as "warmed-over Shrumisms" and continuing to just ravage the guy.
Kos has said that the DLC is on its way out, that it's only given power by its enemies, etc. But conservative Democrats still have a large mouthpiece. And it's not just because liberal Dems keep talking about them. The fact is that TNR is stll highly read among opinion-makers. More than that, TNR's staff writers still get asked on talk shows FAR more than those of any truly liberal publication. So they have more power than much of the party to turn their opinion into CW.
So now is the challenge for Democrats. We need to shore up Kerry's populist wing. Deaniacs have been exhorted to just shut up, get over it, and support Kerry. Fine. But Dean's loss was nothing compared to Lieberman's. The DLC should be subject to the same harsh repudiation of its beliefs that we were. Dean and Edwards inspired hundreds of thousands of people to the polls. Lieberman did not.