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If republicans begin the search for their 2012 winner is the contest between ideological purity and electability a zero sum game. >> haley barber has all but jumped into the presidential race warned the party not to get distracted by so-called purity tests. >> the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. keep your eye on the ball. and the main thing is to elect a republican president in 2012. unity is what we need that will help us win. and purity is not a winner in politics. >> republican strategist mark mckennan is the founder of no labels. let me set the scene further with mitch...

Todd, about one of those races where we have senator majority leader harry reid, the top democrat in the senate in a fight for his political life to hold on to his seat and i thought it interesting in the republican primary, the tea party has endorsed sharon engles. are they making recommendations based on principles or who they think can unseat the incumbent? >> i think you will have to ask them. i think we will see a bit of both based on some purity tests or in other cases, a bit more pragmatic. but i think the fact that harry reid is vulnerable speaks volumes to the anger and the outrage an...

>> yeah, so, what i think about first when i think about republicans trying to purge the moderates is math is definitely not their strong suit. at some point they're going to have to realize when it purges all the moderate members, all that does is creates more independent and democratic voters. and the more aggressively it purges, the more they're going to speak out to defeat the extremists to make sure the other party wins. the republican party can't grow or evolve without being more inclusive, including mike pence. we're never going to get back to being any sort of big tent party with these...

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When he had to be while trying to stick to his principles. so he signed a tax increase when he had to. he increased government spending. >> most of the government spending came as a result of defense increases not on the social side. >> to get to this argument a little bit, this purity test, do you think it's gone too far? that reagan would think the purity tests have gone too far? >> no. reagan was the original tea party candidate. you look at his speeches. '60s and '70s, it was always about anti-establishment, it was upon taking on the republican establishment as well as the democratic estab...