But he added that Mr Blair "taught me that pragmatism and openness in politics counts".
"There is too much principle and not enough pragmatism in the criminal justice system, " he said.
Progressives thought he was one of them and many independents admired his pragmatism and intellect.
That mix of pragmatism and idealism was put to the test during the crisis in Egypt.
But Mr Sarkozy's unFrench, sleeves-rolled-up pragmatism means doing whatever it takes to get things moving.
Commentators who cannot abide her frosty pragmatism eagerly predict her demise whenever she faces setbacks.
U.S. marketing operation, has the kind of pragmatism one might expect from a first-generation immigrant.
Is it driven by zeal or skepticism, passion for what your are doing, pragmatism?
As a politician, this Transport Secretary may have to draw on his reserves of Midlands pragmatism.
Many dictators promote property rights and a reliable legal system out of simple pragmatism.
Perhaps Mr Lieberman's eclectic approach to politics is based on pragmatism as well as morality.
Obama's post-partisan pragmatism, he has confirmed with his inaugural address, was only a useful political contrivance.
To many observers, the suspension of the pact was a triumph of pragmatism over procedure.
There are hopes that China might be signalling that commercial pragmatism will dictate relations with Australia.
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It keeps its eye firmly on its long-term goals while displaying flexible short-term pragmatism.
Its hallmarks are pragmatism, opportunism and an ambivalent attitude towards the uses of violence.
So this deal was far less about a vision of health care than about economic pragmatism.
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For others, "pragmatism" became a winning message to facilitate the re-establishment of old dogmas.
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Still, Mr Cameron's sunny worldview has always been offset by that dose of pragmatism.
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Rick is a loner who won't let his idealism get the better of his pragmatism.
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Mr Yeltsin's main innovation has been his pragmatism, and its usefulness is far from exhausted.
The hallmark of the mid-western Democrats is a virtue usually scorned in their party's primaries: pragmatism.
Here, political pragmatism often goes by the board as every idea gets tested against philosophic first principles.
But China's long history is also filled with moments when faith and pragmatism merged to create miracles.
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If there was such a thing as the spirit of late 19th-century America, did pragmatism express it?
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Angered by this triumph of pragmatism over procedure, the commission took the Council of Ministers to court.
Unlike on the unionist side, no significant nationalist or republican politician has spoken out against this pragmatism.
To succeed, Brown must move beyond delusions and rediscover the pro-business pragmatism that characterized his second gubernatorial term.
Though tempered by pragmatism, Mr Chavez's chief inspiration appears to be the long tradition of Latin American populism.
He calls it pragmatism: I call it bureaucracy without a soul and there is an alternative to this.
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