>As for Jimmy Carter I agree and I have to wonder: why is it that intelligence seems to be strongly inversely coorelated with effectiveness as a president? Jimmy Carter was wildly intelligent and a really nice guy, but couldn't get anything done. Donald Trump is mentally challenged and kind of a prick, yet he seems to be getting heaps of accomplishments under his belt (not all good ones, but largely so). Is it quantity vs quality? Or paralysis of analysis? There is no definitive answer as these are judgement calls, but I think this is fertile ground for aspiring entrepreneurs to try and grok.

Paul Johnson discusses this in his chapter in Heroes about Reagan, Thatcher, and John Paul II. He has concluded that politicians succeed when they focus on three or four simple ideas. Reagan was very different from Thatcher—he was, according to Johnson (a personal friend of both, mind you), ignorant and poorly educated, while she was an Oxford-educated chemist with a law degree—but they both focused on straightforward goals, reducing government's reach and fighting Soviet Communism being two they shared. They worked very well together, too.

Trump's list seems to include

* China

* Illegal aliens

* North Korea

* US manufacturing