We govern in prose.
In remarks at Yale University back in 1985, Mario Cuomo (New York governor … and Democratic keynoter) provided this observation:
“You campaign in poetry. But when we’re elected, we’re forced to govern in prose. And when we govern – as distinguished from when we campaign – we come to understand the difference between a speech and a statute. It’s here that the noble aspirations, neat promises and slogans of a campaign get bent out of recognition or even break as you try to nail them down to the Procrustean bed of reality.”
The campaigns are over … and the job of governing moves forward. Time to get to work.
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