People in rural Virginia haven't felt they have benefited from it?

We have some of the lowest unemployment we've had in decades. But we have not fully cracked the code of, "How do you give that kid in Martinsville, Va., the chance to stay in the community he grew up in?" That is the appeal, and that is the question. And in a lot of ways for Democrats, rural America, small town America, mid-city America, [offer political opportunities]. These are places where people have decided they're going to stay. They're going to stay and they want their communities to flourish, yet they have received virtually no benefits from this current administration. There's not a path that says, "Here's how we're going to make sure your kids get as good an education as the kids in more successful communities. Here's how we're going to make sure we bring jobs back."

That universe of people is there for Democrats to make an appeal to if we can get past some of the cultural issues that just make us seem foreign.

You say that the Bush administration hasn't delivered much to rural America and midsize cities, but the people who live in some of those places might differ. They might say that the Bush administration has kept them safe from al-Qaida and kept homosexual couples from marrying and intruding on their lifestyles.

I'm not sure. I think on the first issue, you're right. Across all of America, urban, rural, suburban, you have concerns about security. I'm not sure on the social issues that that's the first thing people are thinking. I think the first thing they wake up thinking about is, "How is my kid going to get an education that's going to qualify him to get a good job, and are there going to be any of those good jobs in the town here, or is he going to have to move away?"

How do we make sure that there is the kind of quality of life that makes rural America or small-town America appealing? How does it not feel like it is under constant assault, being in effect belittled as not as valid as what we see on the TV set every night?

And how is it that the Republicans -- and this is the Thomas Frank problem -- have succeeded in getting small-town residents so turned around that they end up voting against their own economic self-interests?

I'm not sure they really have.

There was discontent leading up to the 2004 election. Somehow, we didn't have that aspirational, future-oriented, hopeful vision of America -- we didn't lay it out. We laid -- "Here are the programs."

Let me come back to one thing. I've been traveling around the country a lot, and I travel around Virginia a lot. Especially when I'm talking to Democrats, especially with the hardcore Democrats, they want to tell you what they particularly dislike about President Bush. And my feeling is this: There are a lot of things I disagree with the president on. But I think the president's biggest mistake, and I think he's made it twice, once right after 9/11, and once after the Iraq war started, is that he never called on this country for any level of shared sacrifice.

He never called on us to greatness. He never called on us to say, "We are at war, our nation is under assault, and here's what we're going to do." It could be energy independence. It could be "We're going to be the best educated workforce." It could be "We're going to rebuild this infrastructure." It could have been anything. People all across this country were yearning to be called upon. Instead, we were told, "We're going to give a tax cut. We're not going to worry about the nation's finances." And the only people who have been asked to sacrifice are our men and women in the Armed Forces, and they're disproportionately our Guard and Reserve, who make up about 52 percent of our people on the ground in Iraq.

And I think, again, Americans know that. They know that in their gut. Whether it's finances or whether it's, "If we're going to be in this war for some time to come, we're going to have make some level of sacrifice to maintain not only our own national security but our global position in the world." And I think Americans are ready to step up. A little bit of truth telling goes a long way.

You haven't mentioned faith. Not a huge issue in your campaign?

No. I think Democrats need to be able to talk about their faith. I'm a Christian, a Presbyterian. It's part of who I am. But I think that what's become the conventional political wisdom -- that every Democrat has to make sure that they include a Bible verse in every speech -- isn't the case. People want to know who you are. They see that through your faith. They see that through your values. They see that through what you've done in your life, what you emphasize as your priorities.

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