In a calculated snub of Clinton’s accelerating bandwagon, Governor Philip Bredesen of Tennessee warned that voters were “kind of dissatisfied” with the Democrats’ current presidential contenders and that Clinton would face an “uphill road” to win the White House.

Bredesen also expressed dismay that speculation about the 2008 race was already focused on the wife of former president Bill Clinton and on Jeb, the brother of President George W Bush and governor of Florida. “Surely in the United States we can go further than having to have a single family dominate one side and a single family dominate the other,” he said.

Bredesen, 61, was giving his first interview to a foreign newspaper since his emergence earlier this year as a potential dark horse in the presidential race. It appeared to reflect an attempt to raise his international profile amid increasing speculation in Washington that he may become the next southern governor to come from obscurity to take the White House.

Like Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton before him, Bredesen has established a formidable Democratic power base in the conservative south. Clinton came from Hope, Arkansas; Bredesen jokes that when he briefly worked in England in the 1970s, he lived in Hope Cottage, Oxfordshire. His careful stewardship of Tennessee’s economic growth has made him one of the most popular governors in the state’s history.

Bredesen is a soft-spoken, ruddy-faced figure who makes no effort to dodge potentially embarrassing questions. Asked about Clinton, most Democrats gush about how wonderfully she has performed as senator for New York.

Bredesen instead replied: “People love her or they hate her and I don’t know in the end how all that plays out. But I sure hope there are other people who would step forward.”

Who should those others be? “It may well be someone that nobody has thought of . . . the sense I get is that people are really hunting around and looking for something different.”

Bredesen, a former mayor of Nashville, believes his party has “somehow gotten itself divorced” from the blue-collar constituency it has always relied on for presidential success: “I’ve always felt the Democratic party was a kind of alliance between the academics and intellectuals and working-class men and women. I think what happened is that in my lifetime, the academics won.”

As a result, the governor said, the party had lost its broad appeal. He mocked other Democratic candidates who think connecting with middle America means quoting a few verses from the Bible or being photographed with guns.

Bredesen is a lifelong clay pigeon crackshot, and everyone in Tennessee knows that his attachment to guns is real.

He added: “I think a lot of the time the answer they are looking for is ‘Oh, if you just quote Matthew, Mark, Luke or John once in your speech’ that somehow everyone will think you’re one of them.”

Many Democrats have asked him about his “secret” in Tennessee, where voters gave Bush a 14-point victory over Senator John Kerry. Bredesen’s approval ratings are above

60% and he is a shoo-in for re-election next year.

His supporters attribute his success to his modest manner, small-town roots, personal integrity and the quiet competence that helped him transform Nashville from a backwater into a thriving cultural hub.

The Democrats’ problem, Bredesen believes, has little to do with bullets or the Bible. “The point I’m trying to make is that you’ve got to stand up for some clear things,” he said. He is tired of listening to members of his party attempting to appeal to both pro-gun and anti-gun voters: “When you do that, you’re left with nothing.”

In a recent speech to southern Democrats in Atlanta, Bredesen summed up the Republican party platform as follows: “A traditional view of family, no abortion, no gay marriage, a central role for faith, gun over the mantel, low taxes, an assertive and combative view of American interests abroad.”

He then challenged his colleagues to sum up the Democratic party in less than 30 words. Nobody could oblige. Asked what his 30 words would be, he replied: “I don’t have any yet. I’d be delighted to tell you if I did.” He may be waiting until after his re-election to unveil his national vision.

If the party finds a new world view, he added, “I think the other stuff happens. The organisation happens. The excitement happens. We just haven’t had that person yet.” Hillary Clinton seems sure to disagree.

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