In 1996, Republican party candidates took little or no credit for their legislative accomplishments, feared the label “extremism,” began describing themselves as full of “common sense,” and finally maintained their control of the House and Senate by going on the attack against their Democratic rivals in any way they could in the final two weeks of the campaign. Newt Gingrich trashed his millionaire opponent for paying hourly teenage employees the minimum wage — an election-year conversion for a man who fancies himself a conviction politician and surely still believes the minimum wage is a foolish and destructive economic policy, particularly for teenagers.

But Gingrich was just following the dominant trend in this year’s Republican campaigns: He sought to de-ideologize himself and his election. Those were Bob Dole’s instincts too. Dole chafed against his own pro-life stance and refused to make a major issue out of partial-birth abortion, or school choice, or gay marriage. He finally saw the light on the California Civil Rights Initiative in the last two weeks, but then, terminal patients are willing to try any wild idea in search of a miracle cure.