"Standards of Excellence"

[Pete]

... Grant was in many ways an exception even during his day. Many officers in the pre-Civil War army would look very familiar to us today. Drones and careerists ...

What was exceptional about Grant was that he made it to the top and won the war nobody else could. The problem with this precedent from history is that America won't put a guy like him in charge until it's 5 or 10 minutes until Midnight and the end of the world as we know it is impending. As Churchill said, America can always be relied upon to do the right thing after it has exhausted all of the other alternatives.

[Steve Blair]

What was exceptional about Grant was that he made it to the top and won the war nobody else could. The problem with this precedent from history is that America won't put a guy like him in charge until it's 5 or 10 minutes until Midnight and the end of the world as we know it is impending. As Churchill said, America can always be relied upon to do the right thing after it has exhausted all of the other alternatives.

It's the nature of the system, Pete, and I think you'll find that the US is not alone in this respect. We just talk about our failings more than most other nations do.