David Halberstam tells the story of Vice President Lyndon Johnson returning from his first cabinet meeting at Camelot with “the new breed of thinkers-doers, half of academe, half of the nation’s think tanks and of policy planning … not doubting for a moment the validity of their right to serve, the quality of their experience.” Johnson went to his mentor, Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn, “and told him with great enthusiasm how extraordinary they were, each brighter than the next.”

“Well, Lyndon,” Rayburn answered, “you may be right and they may be every bit as intelligent as you say. But I’d feel a whole lot better about them if just one of them had run for sheriff once.”