Recently there have been several individuals who are very talented at getting elected but not talented at governing, once elected. Off hand I think of President Obama and Governor Schwarzenegger, to mention notable examples from both of the major political parties.
Can we think of a way, a priori, to identify such candidates before they are elected? Certainly one thing these two had in common was very little experience in elective office.
Given the poisonous nature of our current politics, I suspect their inexperience was viewed by the electorate as an advantage. Of course it turned out to be a crippling disadvantage.
