Kerry, Chekhov, Crisis. Mickey Kaus writes:

It's not, I admit, a completely implausible theory [that Kerry's lack of achievement in the Senate reflects "the natural temperament of a leader, a loner in charge"]--although it's competing with the more powerful "good in a crisis, bad the rest of the time" explanation for Kerry's erratic leadership performance. Kerry could have become a leader in the U.S. Senate, after all. Nobody was stopping him, and he was there for 19 years...

That chimed for me with this quote from Anton Chekhov (which happened to be hidden in the NYT crossword puzzle just the other day):

Any idiot can face a crisis; it is this day-to-day living that wears you out.