Neither right wing nor left wing in a narrowly partisan sense, it is conservative inasmuch as it compares an ideal of conduct with the limits of human behavior.
"If you view it more in terms of playing a political role – not in a partisan politics sense, but as part of the political process, maybe the way a constitutional court in the European countries does – well, then maybe it makes sense to have people who've been active in the political realms, either in the executive branch or in the legislative branch.
In the end, public analysis, as a matter of sound political strategy (political in the effectiveness sense, not the partisan sense), is better left to others in the White House, the Kerry campaign, Congress, the 9/11 families and the news media.
The maps currently in place — drawn by a panel of federal judges in San Antonio — have him on safer ground, at least in the partisan sense.
In his acceptance speech, which was delivered by radio to the Chicago convention from a secret naval base in California, Roosevelt declared that he would not have the time or the inclination to campaign in "the usual partisan sense".
And not just mad in the familiar, tribal, partisan sense, the way historic rivals like the Yankees and the Red Sox seethe at each other when they compete in autumn for the American League pennant.
The calculus of thinking about not participating in an important local forum solely in terms of whether it gives partisan advantage or makes partisan sense, illustrates exactly why George Washington disliked political parties and thought them to be inimical to the well-being of democracy.
"He's a partisan in the sense that he's a strong Democrat, but he's not an ideological Democrat," Stanley Greenberg said.
On this view, Confucius and Laozi were both "Daoists," in the non-partisan sense of the term.
