Homo Politicus

Politicians of all shapes and sizes are different forms of animals from the rest of us. I once met a campus politician around here, that was exactly one meeting. I run into him 4 more times after that and he still remembers me, my name, and what I'm doing. If that's not a gift you tell me. These political types have some comparative advantage over us non-political types, they are naturally people person and are trained to listen to anybody, and all points of view from all disciplines. I guess their talent is being able to insert themselves in all sorts of situations and fancy themselves as facilitator. The compromise consultant if you will. I think we need them, otherwise they wont exist, they lower transactions costs between parties of opposite sides of an argument. For the most part the end result of a compromise agreement is not satisfactory to both parties. That's where politician's usefulness comes again, we get to blame them.