The campaign swallowed the job

What happens when keeping public support becomes more important than accomplishing anything with it? How often do voters reward the behavior they say they want to end?

In this week’s “This Matters,” Bill Britt examines the logic of the permanent campaign, beginning with advice pollster Pat Caddell offered Jimmy Carter after his 1976 victory. The need to explain and persuade carries a danger: Campaigning can consume the very work it was supposed to make possible.

Elected officials should have to answer one plain question: What did you finish?

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