Two observations, the second of which I’ve mentioned in a previous thread.

1. Ideology really has two aspects, the primary one is that it is an attempt to account for the way things are, and how that should inform policy. The secondary aspect is the more trivial but prominent in today’s political atmosphere, and that is as a banner for one team in the team sport known as partisan politics. Romney’s achievement was to make his arguments in the spirit of the former while resisting the pitfalls of the latter. Good on him!

2. However, I cannot envision how a post-partisan President Romney would succeed when the DC he is walking into is occupied by standard bearers more problem solvers. Lest we forget this was exactly the road a candidate Bush promised and we got a squishy compassionate conservatism and Bush Derangement Syndrome. It seems to me Romney is going to have to be willing to make enemies before he makes friends in the beltway. And I have a hard time envisioning that.