Washington is bad at scheming

Ezra Klein wrote Washington is bad at scheming "That's the main thing I've learned working as a reporter and political observer in Washington: No one can carry out complicated plans. All parties and groups are fractious and bumbling. But everyone always thinks everyone else is efficiently and ruthlessly carrying out complicated plans. Partisans are very good at recognizing disarray and incompetence on their side of the aisle, but they tend to think the other side is intimidatingly capable and unburdened by scruples or normal human vulnerabilities. And there's so much press interest in Svengali political consultants like Karl Rove or David Plouffe, all of whom get built up in the press as infallible tacticians, that the place just looks a lot more sophisticated than it really is."

It makes sense to me. It also jives with the sense I got after reading the issue long story in Newsweek after the 2004 election. My conclusion was that Kerry's campaign was better than I thought (he was the problem) and Rove wasn't as strong as I thought. (If I remember correctly the big deal was the Rove was better at controlling the cable news cycle).