Eight years in the wilderness to ponder pragmatism?
And really, it's not pragmatism to invoke William F. Buckley's law: "I will vote for the most conservative candidate who has a reasonable chance of being elected in any given race."
BTW, what do you want to bet that Ronald Reagan voted for Gerald Ford in the 1976 general election? I bet he didn't sit out "on principle" because Ford "wasn't pro-life," or whatever.