It’s still the middle of the night here in Los Angeles (or so I’d like to think so I can sneak in a nap before my panel this morning) and I’m having hearing issues this week (why I was checking out doctor’s waiting rooms earlier this week), so forgive me if I am wrong but I think I just heard Joe Scarborough on his show say that he might switch parties too if he were still a working pol, the party being so lost and all (my words, not his). Even if I misheard Joe I don’t doubt there are some thinking that. That neither party really has that vision thing — and the GOP especially — so it’s all flexible.

Well . . . or this is a great opportunity for real grounded leaders who know who they are. The problem right now is the guys up front may not be real grounded leaders who know who they are. The real grounded leaders who know who they are might not have the ambition or we don’t know their names because they are doing real work on the ground in the states, in business . . . making real legitmate livings and raising families. But we better hope we see them soon. And I don’t doubt we will.

Put another way, we need more partisanship, not less. We need real idea battles from people who have gotten their hands dirty being conservatives in real life. Not just in rhetoric and the theoretical (though these things help, too.) Reagan, ultimately, made sure he had both — striking up a mentee/mentor frienship with WFB, for big instance.

For more on a successful GOP feature, see our two 100 Days symposia today (see here and here). We join the national nonsense milestone by looking instrospectively, too — I think constructively.