QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 10:26 A.M. ET:  From Peggy Noonan in The Wall Street Journal, quoting others on what it takes to win in politics:

The late Rep. Henry Hyde, he of the Hyde amendment, once said to me, "Politics is a game of addition." You start with your followers and bring in new ones, constantly broadening the circle to include people who started out elsewhere. You know the phrase Reagan Democrats? It exists because Reagan reached out to Democrats! He put out his hand to them and said, literally, "Come walk with me." He lauded Truman, JFK and Scoop Jackson. He argued in his first great political speech, in 1964, that the choice wasn't right or left, it was up or down.

That's what Mr. Daniels was saying. "We can search for villains on ideological grounds," but it's a waste of time. Compromise and flexibility are necessary, "purity in martyrdom is for suicide bombers." We must work together. You've got to convince the other guy.

COMMENT:  That is so right.  Those who look for ideological purity are headed for defeat, especially in a presidential election.  Reagan was far from pure.  He reached out and appealed to Democrats.  Obama won by presenting himself as a centrist, although in his case he deceived us and should be defeated in 2012 on that basis alone.

But smart candidates understand they can't win with their base alone.  No one ever has.

America is an idealistic country, not an ideological one. 

Elections are about winning.  I am not interested in losing next year.  I don't want us to produce someone like Adlai Stevenson, who lost two presidential elections and basked in the applause of those who thought him right, but knew he had not one iota of power.

February 18, 2011