Kevin Phillips believes they’re the key to a possible Kerry victory. Money quote:
The alternative–at once bolder and riskier, but with a larger potential electorate–involves targeting the ordinary Republicans who rejected at least one generation of Bushes to back Perot or McCain. These voters–not a few thousand elites but millions of the rank and file–are concentrated in the middle-class precincts of swing states like Maine, New Hampshire, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Colorado and the Pacific Coast.
I can’t say I think Phillips’ proposal of economic populism for a Kerry candidacy would work. But his analysis of Bush’s weakness strikes me as sound.
The Dish 