Up until recently I don't think it can be doubted that the national Democrats were heading in a more suburban-libertarian direction, and largely for the reasons Frodo mentioned.
Recent noises from various high profile national Democrats (and the facts that Reid was able to fix himself the Minority Leader spot without too much trouble and that they got Casey to run for Senate) suggests that they've finally realised that what they have been doing is electoral suicide.
I think in the next few years we're likely to see more attention on small town voters from the national Dems.
Bush ran worse in small towns in 2004 than in 2000.
