Well, you know, the definition of second marriage is the triumph of hope over experience.

Still, it is not perverse to wonder whether the spectacle of America, currently learning a lesson - one that conservatives should not have to learn on the job - about the limits of power to subdue an unruly world, has emboldened many enemies.

[President George W.] Bush - never mind his well-crafted set speeches; listen to him as he leans on a lectern, chatting to an audience of carpenters - is completely comfortable being himself, a skill still eluding Gore in his 55th year.

Modern Americans travel light, with little philosophic baggage other than a fervent belief in their right to the pursuit of happiness.

That is the crux of modern conservatism - government taking strong measures to foster the attitudes and aptitudes necessary for increased individual independence.

Political nature abhors a vacuum, which is what often exists for a year or two in a party after it loses a presidential election.

All children find chaos congenial. Any unruliness, even by nature, advances the child's program of subverting authority.