Motherhood, Apple Pie & Democrats?

Today’s Richmond Times-Dispatch profiles attempts by three highly-touted 2008 presidential candidates – Mark Warner, John Edwards, & Tom Vilsack – to appeal to broad American audiences ahead of the election. Speaking at a Florida Democratic even over the weekend, each man - two Southerners and one Midwesterner – offered up their take on a new notion of “national community” to inspire Americans to seek common ground with one another.

"There is a hunger in America, a hunger for a sense of national community, a hunger for something big and important and inspirational that they all can be involved in," said Edwards, the party's 2004 vice presidential nominee. "Americans don't want to believe that they are out there on an island all alone," the former North Carolina senator said.

Each held up his own life as an example of the greatness that can be achieved in America, and waxed about restoring the sense of hope to the American electorate. It appears that their tact is to imbue their candidacies with a new sense of optimism that plays against the conventional Democratic model, thus staking out ground against presumptive front-runner, Sen. Hillary Clinton. It will be interesting to see if, and how, this message will resonate with voters, especially those who lean Republican. If they can reach beyond the Democratic base, then the men just may turn the "national community" blue in 2008.