Gingrich or Romney? Which is better, from a pro-freedom, limited government and individual rights point-of-view? The question relies upon a false premise. The false premise is that either one of these men even claims to be in favor of limited government as provided for in the original American Constitution. It's not a matter of figuring out "how good he will be" or "if he really means it" -- because meaning something implies that you think it in the first place. To be fair, neither of these men ever claimed to be an advocate of strictly limited government.

Mencken writes: “What is the chief mark of such a good man? That he cannot differentiate rationally between sin and sin—that a gnat gags him as badly as a camel. So with poor Gray. His initial peccadillo shocked him so vastly that he could think of himself thereafter only as a sinner unspeakable and incorrigible.” 

According to the principles of cognitive therapy, black-and-white thinking is a major cause of emotional problems such as depression and anxiety. Also known as all-or-nothing thinking, many cognitive therapists define it as seeing things in black-or-white categories. If a situation falls short of perfect, you see it as a total failure. When a young woman on a diet eats a spoonful of ice cream, she tells herself, “I’ve blown my diet completely!” This thought upsets her so much that she gobbles down an entire quart. This kind of thinking is also evident in people with temper problems. They describe their anger as going from “1 to 100” in a flash. They find it difficult to distinguish between minor misunderstandings and outrageous injustices because they haven’t trained themselves to do so.