Ever since Al Gore lost the 2000 presidential election to George W Bush by less than a whisker, a debate has raged among Democrats: should the party return to centrist principles espoused by Bill Clinton or should it attempt to reactivate its base by embracing the populism espoused by candidates such as Howard Dean, the new party chairman?

At the forefront of that debate has been a young, Harvard-educated writer, lawyer and activist named Andrei Cherny, who started his Washington political career right at the top: at the age of 21, he became the youngest White House speechwriter ever as a wordsmith for Mr Gore's vice-presidential office.