I think a lot of democrats miss the politically incorrect humour in King of the Hill. I've tried to get people to watch it in Canada, but many are satire impaired and so can't quite figure it out. But the Times article is right on the money about its analysis of US politics and swing votes. I'm not sure that the same situation exists in Canada though. In Canada you don't have a huge proportion of pick up truck owning voters who can be persuaded to vote for the left. Why? Well first of all a lot of them vote for the left already. In fact, there are many more left leaning voters here. Canada has two left wing parties, so that splits the vote, and the right has a much smaller following. But the left still manages to win most elections.
If I were a US voter I would support an honest straight talking Democrat who has appeal in the South but I don't think it's a strategy that would work well here. That is, a move to the centre has a tendency to alienate Quebec voters, environmentalists, idealists, socialists etc. who will get you elected in this country. So, it's a different context. For the US, I would want a centre left Presidential candidate who knew his/her constituency, that is, knew ordinary people and what was important to them and was in favour of unifying issues such as medicare that have to do with the real aspects of people's lives, but was neutral on the social and symbolic issues and whose tone was matter of fact as opposed to 'visionary'. The main thing though is to set the agenda and have it be about substantive issues. Easier said than done.