Just as far as we can

"We’ll have as much spine as we possibly can, under the circumstances."

This response by Hillary Clinton to an activist calling on her to show some spine by endorsing federal funding for a needle exchange programmes is incredibly revealing of the Clinton campaign mindset. The Clintons's electoral success has been based on this approach of not going to the mat on issues that they perceive as vote losers and ultimately peripheral.

Following their disastrous handling of the gays in the military issue right at the beginning of Bill’s first term in 1993, they basically passed on all this kind of cultural politics. Indeed, in 2004 Bill Clinton even encouraged John Kerry to come out for state-level constitutional amendments to ban gay marriage to take the sting out of the subject

This time, though, the Clintons are running with several serious contenders to their left. It will be fascinating to see if, with conservatism in America in the worst shape that it has been in for a generation, Democratic primary voters are prepared to accept this kind of incremental politics. Odd as it may sound, Hillary supporters should actually be rooting for a mild Republican revival for as long as the Democrats appear to have the White House in the bag, the base will have less patience for caution.