I'll have more on this later, but Lindsey Beyerstein's absolutely right. This whole idea of offending core constituencies all for the sake of building our centrist bonafides is abysmal. Simply abysmal. The notion of "pulling a Sister Souljah" is also, I think, drastically overblown. I've been trying to put together some data to show that Bill Clinton didn't win his 1992 election on the basis of cultural centrism (the bare outlines are over at Mother Jones). Executing a retarded man and "dissing" a black rapper (who was, if I recall, taken out of context) served as nice red meat for a rather bloodthirsty media pool, but not much else.

Digby, meanwhile, is on the right track. Democrats stand for many things—like making the privacy of the bedroom actually private—that probably enjoy a good deal of support among even the reddest of states. Though this too may be overblown: Many of these red state conservatives may love country songs about dating and screwing, but their stances on bedroom privacy could easily soften if it means that gay people get to do the same thing. But hey, what do I know?