Sun Tzu's The Art of War teaches that of the five factors that define a strategic position, philosophy is the core, the central element that holds everything else together. The value of having a clear, unambiguous philosophy was shown tonight in the Republican convention. Republicans were able to be unambiguously religious, pro-family, pro-tradition, pro-military, pro-America and anti-terrorist. Because of this, the presentation was clean, fairly memorable (for a political event), and even emotionally affecting (Guiliani is good!).