When a party is in opposition, it opposes. That's its job. But when it comes to power, it must govern. Easy rhetoric is over, the press of reality becomes irresistible. By necessity, it adopts some of the policies it had once denounced. And a new national consensus is born.

The joy of losing consists in this: Where there are no expectations, there is no disappointment.

Two decades ago, however, socialism and communism died rudely, then were buried forever by the empirical demonstration of the superiority of market capitalism everywhere from Thatcher's England to Deng's China, where just the partial abolition of socialism lifted more people out of poverty more rapidly than ever in human history.

When under attack, no country is obligated to collect permission slips from allies to strike back.

It is an old liberal theme that conservative ideas, being red in tooth and claw, cannot possibly emerge from any notion of the public good.

I don't mind going into a liberal lion's den. That's where you test yourself.

If you subsidize apples, you get more apples; if you subsidize unemployment, you get more of it.