Dick Cheney is out there bashing John Kerry as being "on the left, out of the mainstream and out of touch with the conservative values of the heartland." I suspect there's some truth to that with regard to some values.
On the other hand, I'd like to see someone ask Cheney about some other values. Going off to defend America in a war versus escaping the draft via deferments because you had "other priorities," for example. I escaped the draft myself (high lottery number) and never felt there was anything wrong with that. But when it was Clinton against Dole, it was the guy in the uniform who supposedly represented the values of the heartland, and I don't think anything's changed now except which one is the Democrat and which one is the Republican.
Cheney also seems to love companies like Walmart as a model of how American business should operate. Walmart has done a good job of moving into a town, driving the small merchants (the "Mom and Pop" shops) into insolvency, then lowering the general wage scale of an area. Oh, yeah — and they no longer cling to Sam Walton's once-expressed goal of trying to keep manufacturing jobs in America. We all love lower prices, which Walmart is sometimes able to deliver, but I don't think they consider that a perfect trade-off in the heartlands.
And there are an awful lot of allegations about the Iraq War — lying, profiteering, human rights violations, poor strategizing, etc. — that I don't think are much exalted anywhere in the country. Nor is running up a massive deficit or causing former allies to hate us.
I sure hope Kerry and his running mate, whoever it is, don't get caught up in the game of defending the right to burn the flag. I'd much rather see them assert that doing right by the nation and its people is a value that trumps those "red meat" issues. Dukakis (and to some extent, Gore) made the mistake of going on the defense about their faith and patriotism and courage. In one debate, Joe Lieberman stood there like Venus De Milo, saying nothing as Cheney asserted he'd never made a dime off the government. If the Democrats play it that way again, they deserve to lose. And they will.