A return to traditional values?
The Times - Cameron? He's so last year
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Mr Cameron aspires to do the same, sprinkling himself with stardust (following Clinton/Blair) and triangulating into the space between new Labour (which has become old) and old Tory (which could not be remade new).
Yet, looking at the United States today suggests that the formula of the Nineties has faded. Who are the most popular politicians in America? Senator John McCain (particularly) and Rudolph Giuliani. They are offering themselves not on the basis of glitz and glamour, style or sophisticated triangulation, but as men of established weight who talk straight to the voters, not act as an echo chamber for short-term sentiment.
The new, new politics in the US is old-fashioned in nature. And beneath the headline numbers, British pollsters are detecting a similar rejection of the razzmatazz and realpolitik of the Clinton-Blair era and a desire to rediscover solemn, mature leadership without the make-up.
Maybe, just maybe those of us who have resisted the call of shallow popularism as the sole reason for political parties will be proved to have the longer staying power. Real politicians presenting real, tough, choices is much more appealling than the daytime sofa-jumping, glottal stopping, regular guy crassness we have now.