You Da Manager!

Today, the American Enterprise Institute takes on the issue of how John Kerry would govern. Consensus: pretty hard to tell at this point. Interesting, though, that more than one panelist essentially endorsed a Bush campaign theme: Kerry's not much of a legislator. On the Hill, he's been more interested in investigations like Iran-Contra and the BCCI affair than in crafting bills. More telling is his experience as an assistant district attorney in Middlesex County, Mass., where he modernized a highly inefficient operation. "He's credited with being a really good manager," said Nina Easton, deputy Washington bureau chief of the Boston Globe. "He's much more comfortable exercising executive judgments," added AEI's Norman Ornstein, who went on to make the analogy with the other JFK: wartime boat captain with a meager legislative record itching to run the whole show. (For the GovExec take on the issue, see Jason Peckenpaugh's July 1 Kerry profile.)