I was in Berlin with a film crew when the wall came down. A Congressman running for the Senate had family ties in East Germany, and we thought it could make for some powerful scenes reuniting with family members.

Less than a thousand days earlier, Ronald Reagan demanded, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” Eight hundred and eighty-eight days was all it took for Reagan’s moral challenge to be answered by history.

My candidate was a Republican, of course, because I only worked for Republicans. Political consulting is like that. You pick a side and stick with it. If not, neither side will trust you.

We were there hoping that the pixie dust of freedom would fall on my candidate. He was what would have been called an “establishment” Republican, which was the sort I tended to work for. I’d like to say that was driven by a deep ideological commitment, but the truth is, those were the kinds of Republican candidates who won most frequently. I learned very quickly that the key to a successful political consulting career was to work for people who were going to win anyway and not screw it up. I was good at that.

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