If he would have ran as an ideologue Gore would have beaten him and instead of incremental pro-life victories we would have utter defeat. Conservatives are not a majority. Until we change the way millions of people think and we become a majority, we need to spend a little more time thinking about how to get elected and little less time drafting essays for the National Review. Makes sense. I would only caution that, in my opinion, your comment that we need to stop drafting essays for National Review is a telling indicator of the problem: it's self-contradictory.
How else can we change millions of minds unless we educate and lay out the viewpoints plainly and clearly? I fear that "ideologue" is rapidly decaying into a pejorative term when there's nothing really off-putting about it.
I might be crazy, but politics isn't just about compromise (as is so often said) but about ideas. I think that in addition to, perhaps in some cases instead of, downplaying controversial views, we should work on more ably carrying the message to Americans.
I'm not a Maha-Rushie follower, but I agree with his sentiment that, when clearly, firmly, and positively put forward, conservatism wins the day with the average American. We just need to step out and make it so.
CaptBlack - I agree with you. My point about "drafting essays for the National Review" was not meant to demean conservative research or intellectuals but to make exactly the point you were making that we need to reach millions of people. Those people aren't reading the National Review. I have no problem with ideologues. Newt Gingrich is a great model. There was a man with huge ideas, and incredible intellect. He could have spent the rest of his life writing essays and teaching college courses but he had the vision to create the Contract with America. In creating it he didn't create the conservative ideas but rather the marketing plan. It worked brilliantly and attracted a lot of new GOP voters. So there's nothing wrong with ideologues but we need to have some marketing savvy when we take our ideas to the people. Reagan did, Gingrich did, McClintock doesn't. Using the Gingrich example again - there was a man who probably wanted to be president and would have made a great one, but he understood the American political situation enough to know that he could get his ideas implemented through the Contract with America but he could not get elected President.
Maybe it's the TV effect. Maybe it's the dumbing down of America, but pure ideas don't win election anymore. Sound logic and reason are not enough to get you elected. In sales they say "people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." - Clinton said he "felt our pain." When I watch Tom McClintock in debates I hear all the right answers, I hear perfect ideology, but I don't hear the independent masses saying "Yah - that's right!"