"Clinton and Magaziner did not know Congress, and so they did not build legislation that worked in Congress. They saw the policy problem more clearly than the political problem. Arguably, they solved the former. But in failing to solve the political problem, their policy was stillborn."
-from an article written by Ezra Klien in the American Prospect
This got me thinking about how Obama will use Tom Daschle to push through whatever healthcare reforms they come up with. You can't just be an expert on policy. You can't just be a hard nosed senator. No, to implement great legislation that really makes things better for everyone, you've got to be great at both.
This probably produces a big bottleneck effect. Lots of people in think tanks with great ideas but no ability to push the ideas through congress. Lots of senators and representatives (or ex-politicans) with the political agility to do great things but utterly lacking great ideas. Then, a few people who are really great at both.
Seems like a bad deal for the rest of us who have to live with congress' decisions. Let's hope Obama picked the right man in Daschle.
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