In her FrontPage Magazine column today, Ann Coulter asks, "Can anyone remember a single meaningful phrase Clinton ever uttered?"

Well, actually, ... yes.

Clinton managed to shift the center of the Democratic party and American politics generally in 1992 with a single phrase when he announced that he was on the side of people who "work hard and play by the rules." Many of us who consider ourselves at least DLC-type Democrats today probably wouldn't if it weren't for that simple statement of support for the folks who get up every morning, go to work, love their kids, worry about crime, and want to defend our nation against all foes, foreign and domestic. Clinton may well not have lived up to that ideal (you'll notice I didn't include "don't cheat on their wives" in the list above), but the phrase was important nonetheless. For all its sound-bite, market-tested simplicity, it signaled an end to a Democratic policy agenda that had grown increasingly out-of-touch with the concerns of the average American, and it will be remembered one day as an important milestone in the birth of a more centrist -- and relevant -- Democratic party.
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