Hear, hear. I could even argue that the dearth of "skilled political operators" and "passionate orators" - at least excluding the ones that seem to be under exclusive contract to the Devil himself - is maybe the worst part of our current era. And it's widespread, and on multiple continents. We haven't seen the likes of Teddy Roosevelt, William Jennings Bryan, or FDR, or even JFK or LBJ, in a whole generation. Even a comparison to Richard Nixon, by any measure, makes every presidential candidate and congressional leader in the past 20 years look like buffoons and fools. Terms like "Debate" have become redefined as "Insulting and ranting past your opponents to get cheers out of your fans." No wonder we can't pass any policy that makes any sense with these jackasses in charge.

And in case anyone wonders, on my list of skilled politicians above, I'm only old enough to have witnessed Nixon, so this is not a "back in my day" rant. It's a "it hasn't been ok since way before my day."