My latest column for The Daily aims to hammer home a simple point:

[Mitch Daniels’s] success flows in part from his personal style. Early on in Keeping the Republic, Daniels notes that he scrupulously avoids political labels. By way of explanation, he writes, “I’ve found that the people I meet don’t typically identify with one particular political ideology. Instead, they are looking for workable solutions to pressing problems affecting their families and communities.” …
If a Republican does win the White House next year, she or he will have to pay close attention to lessons from the states. The primary process encourages candidates to establish their ideological bona fides, and to preach to the converted. But as the Daniels experience suggests, successful governance requires making the case for reform on pragmatic grounds. When Republicans weigh their presidential candidates, they need to give serious thought to which of them are most capable of devising, and selling, workable solutions.

More (reforming) action, less (ideological) talk.