Demagogue

In what was otherwise a laudatory "puff" piece about Senator George Allen (one of several Republicans touted as presidential timber), columnist George Will wrote this paragraph following a recent visit to New Hampshire:

One Allen supporter, who like many New Hampshire conservatives fled liberal Massachusetts -- "I was like a Mennonite living in Las Vegas'' -- is the kind of Republican primary voter who relishes Allen's description of New Hampshire as "what America was.''

As Allen drove from Massachusetts into this state -- one of just nine states without an income tax -- he noted approvingly of motorcyclists riding lawfully, if not wisely, without helmets.

Alas, as even Will seems to acknowledge, Allen is yet another Republican who believes ideology trumps common sense.