The Price of Overconfidence

Democrats are giddy about their prospects in November. But have the primaries pushed their candidates too far left?

Charlie Neibergall / AP

Hillary Clinton speaks about her health care policy on September 17, 2007 at Broadlawns Medical Center in Des Moines, Iowa

Liberals are more confident about their future than at any other point since 1968. They think the long period of conservative dominance of American politics is over. Read their magazines, and you'll find articles on how to make the most of the dawning liberal moment--or on how Republicans should be treated after they lose power. (They are to be shunned and occasionally pilloried.)

Some liberals criticize Hillary Clinton because, having spent the bulk of her career in the conservative era, she is too cautious. She lives in terror of a latent conservatism that no longer exists in the land. The country...

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