Bit by bit, Mr Westerwelle is preparing his liberals for a probable spell in opposition.
But the data show that American conservatives have been consistently happier than liberals for at least 35 years.
And when Rubio was viciously and unfairly attacked by presumptuous white liberals for not being authentically Latino, I liked him even more.
The question that has plagued Liberals for more than half a century is how a third party can break open a two-party system.
Once, primaries were essentially family quarrels, as trade unionists jostled with lifestyle liberals for the Democratic nomination and economic conservatives jostled with religious zealots for the Republican.
Liberals, for their part, are expressing astonishment that such lawlessness should continue now that Iran is on the path to reform.
Conservatives like the cultural conservatism of that time, while liberals pine for the days when the middle class seemed at its strongest.
Liberals, for example, vow to resist any major Medicare changes.
The Liberals ruled for most of the 20th century by offering consensual, centrist politics with a dash of European social democracy to a coalition of industrial workers, the suburban middle class and immigrants.
Just as conservative women reacted angrily to liberal feminists who question whether Palin could raise her children and run for vice president, liberals like the National Organization for Women's Kim Gandy are now tweaking Republicans for their newfound sensitivity.
Here is a theme for liberals, in the widest sense, in the years ahead.
Strike down Obamacare, and single payer instantly becomes the number one organizing cause for liberals in America.
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As it stands, none of this is difficult for liberals to accept, or even new to them.
However, the results for 1998 are less encouraging for liberals than the results of our questions on trade.
In certain respects, the burden, as Stewart points out, is greater for liberals, given the centrality of government to their agenda.
For liberals, it means that, without big unpopular tax increases, government is deeply constrained in its ability to address new challenges.
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Alas, he lacks the kind of skills at compromise, moderation and restraint that once defined conservatism and now seems entirely reserved for liberals.
There's unlikely to be the kind of dramatic backlash against the court that some liberals are hoping for, unless the court moves even further to the right.
But Ms. Thernstrom thinks that even if Section 5 can survive a new round of judicial scrutiny and the oversight continues, there are demographic reasons for liberals to be worried.
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Young Americans vote for liberals, while seniors go conservative.
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The centre-left Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in Europe (PASDE) is the second largest bloc with 183 MEPs, followed by the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) with 84.
The list above should be sobering for liberals.
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Sir Graham represents south-west England and Gibraltar in the European Parliament and is also president of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party, which consists of more than 50 liberal parties from across Europe.
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While he has ideas about how to prevent this, I think given more time and freedom most Americans would elect to spend it in ways that the very same liberals who argue for 15 work weeks would find objectionable and wasteful.
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He has the added advantage of being both a known conservative commodity but something of a stealth candidate, since he's been on the DC court for less than two years, so there isn't much of a record for liberals to attack.
It cannot be denied that there are problems, for liberals and supporters of full female emancipation, with the application of Sharia, the body of laws deemed to derive from the Koran, in those countries where the judicial system is wholly or partly based on it.
There are too many government workers and liberals in the county for that to happen.
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Mr Blair has, in effect, imposed on Labour the Grimond master-plan for the Liberals.
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