Pensioners want to get their prescription drugs free on Medicare. Middle-class parents will like the idea of tax allowances to help them save for their children's college fees. Working mothers want universal pre-school education. Working girls want to choose their abortion. And then there are guns.
School massacres come and go, and nothing happens.
Not even childproof locks on revolvers or mandatory checks on criminal records when you buy your arsenal over the counter. George W. Bush is signed up, on the record in Texas, for a policy which allows citizens to carry loaded guns in churches, synagogues, hospitals, amusement parks. When women voters find that out, they switch. A five-point gap in Gore's favour yawns suddenly to over 20 per cent. In a world of generalised content, specific issues can count - and the Democrats intend to be very specific.