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About 70 percent of Americans identify themselves as either politically conservative or moderate, polls show. A large number of Americans also consistently say that they want politicians to work together in a bipartisan way.

It’s true that these broad principles often don’t translate to individual issues: Voters are quite progressive on specific matters of economic policy, for example. But many Americans clearly like to see themselves as supporters of common-sense compromise.

Given this desire, the smart thing for politicians to do is signal their own support for compromise — especially if they’re able to do so in vague ways that won’t cause them future problems. Joe Biden is quite good at sending these signals. He’s done so several times in the current campaign, most recently this week, when a voter in New Hampshire asked if he would consider naming a Republican as his vice president. Biden replied: “The answer is I would, but I can’t think of one now.”