Yesterday, former President Bill Clinton appeared on The Daily Show with host Jon Stewart. Stewart asked Clinton about the tone of the political debate. Clinton made clear that he believes the candidates, activists and parties should change the tone and stop dehumanizing each other.

Stewart said it reminded him of the Nixon-McGovern elections; the cultural divide. “It’s once again the left demonizing the right for narrow-mindedness and the right demonizing the left for elitism.”

“I think that’s a mistake,” Clinton said.

Stewart also talked about how some supporters of Barack Obama especially, demand complete, full, emotional support from others. If you’re not cheerleading for Obama, you’re no good.

One such person talked with Stewart before the show, criticizing Bill Clinton for not being pro-Obama enough.

Stewart disagreed with that, clearly, believing that such strong support is unnecessary and, perhaps even, ridiculous.

Clinton explained that people vote for all kinds of reasons, and that there is no use in demonizing the other. He and Hillary tried to break through that, he said, in their speeches in Denver. Stewart then said that even those speeches were spun by the media to be solely about one thing; did the Clintons show enough love for Obama?

“I’ve even got one guy in the audience,” Stewart said, “who said to me, ‘did you see him on Letterman? I don’t know whether he endorsed Obama or not.’ Unless you get a tattoo, you may have to get a tattoo or some kind of permanent bumpersticker [on your arm]…”

Clinton responded: “I’m glad he has people that love him so much, but that are not the people that hold the this election. The people that hold this election are people who think he is on their side and he loves them.” In other words; independents. Democrats, and those who support Obama, should not villify McCain and those who may vote for him, they should make the case for Obama in such a way that independents and objective individuals think ‘you know what, McCain is ok, but Obama is better.’

“We already got all the people that love us on our side, we now need others,” Clinton said. “We’ve got love them, not expect  them to love us.”

And that’s the key to winning the elections right there.