Their game

The new iPhone is on the way and uncountable new apps and other electronic marvels come at us daily.  This is somehow the same world in which our political leaders want to build more trains.  Brookings' Cliff Winston takes up the story in today's WSJ ("Paving the Way for Driverless Cars ... Instead of focusing on an enormously expensive high-speed rail system, government should promote modern highway design.")  Yes, they should.  But who are we talking about?

One thing that politicos are pretty good at is reading the minds of their voters.  That, after all, is their bread and butter.  You don't have to go far before you encounter otherwise informed and thoughtful people who seriously believe that if we build enough of these projects, people will use them and the world will be a better place.

As I write this, Gov. Jerry Brown is at LA's Union Station to sign the funding bill.  There will be smiles all around.  Why?  Because they know their game.