Andrew Sullivan has this excellent must-read post on conservatism versus moderation. But I need to add this: there is often a tension as well between liberalism and moderation. It’s just that today the right is veering further the right than the left is veering further to the left — which suggests that if the GOP picks the wrong candidate (if the “right” is someone who can bring in people besides choir members) many moderates will join in a de facto coalition against the GOP in 2012.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.