The last time she showed up there she was smiling and laughing and clapping at Paul Wellstone's memorial pep rally, and hobknobbing happily with other corrupt Democrat dinosaurs.
The Clintons deserted Arkansas and the little guy for big city lights and power, and the little guys will eventually figure this out.
The thing that Peggy Noonan did not mention was that the Dems HAVE to move left because, contrary to what she wrote, the extremists DO have someplace they can go. They can go Independent or Green. Just as the Libertarian vote could have saved Thune, Nader halted Gore in Florida. Clinton knew that the Democrat party is like a European coalition of environmentalists (incl. anti-gun, anti-smoking), gays, teachers, NAACP, and NOW, funded by unions and trial lawyers. [The native Americans tried to get into this minority mix when they attempted to "buy" their lands back from Clinton while he was Prez.] These aren't "little guys" but organized movements with big budgets. Without this odd marriage of special interest groups, they have no real base. Every platform has to have something for everyone of them and that spells more spending, regulation, litigation, and big government. So...
The Dems DO have a message and over-taxed citizens are tired of losing their jobs to lesser-qualified "minorities" (even if you are in a minority, there is always another minority more fashionable); finding out their kids can't add; following "Simon Says" rules regarding where they can't hike, smoke, or fish; and, watching judges let criminals off, award rug-burn victims millions of dollars, and re-write the Pledge.
Mondale revealed the Democrat mission in 1984---"We're going to tax their a**es off!" That has been their mantra and raison d'etre since 1932. Unless there is a large economic base producing enough taxes to please the special interest "beggers" (or if the special interests members increase their voting populations faster than the economy grows, which could happen), they will be the minority party for awhile.