Janan Ganesh’s FT column today ends with an excellent quote which can also serve as the motto of American politics:

“We all know what to do. But we don’t know how to get re-elected once we have done it.”

He doesn’t cite the source because the FT readership would of course know who it was (I didn’t): Jean-Claude Juncker, the former Prime Minister of Luxembourg and President of the European Commission. I thought re-election wouldn’t be a problem in Luxembourg since there were so few politicians around you were bound to circle back to the top spot, but there you go.