The Long Game

"I have learned that the story of a nation's success, and the success of each one of us, is a slow awakening to the timeless value of the long game."In October 1984, a hard-charging Kentucky politician waited excitedly for President Ronald Reagan to arrive at a presidential rally in Louisville. In the midst of a tough Senate campaign against an incumbent Democrat, the young Republican hoped Reagan's endorsement would give a much-needed boost to his insurgent campaign. He even had a camera crew ready to capture the president's words for a TV commercial he planned to air during the campaign's final stretch. Alas, when Reagan finally stepped to the microphone, he smiled for the crowd and declared: "I'm happy to be here with my good friend, Mitch O'Donnell." That was hardly Mitch McConnell's first setback, and far from his last. But as he learned in running his very first campaign for high school student body president, you don't have to be the most popular,...