Can McKinsey fix the US? Or is it more a job for Bain or BCG?

There was a time when political candidates used to run their campaigns on the basis that they had the answers needed to fix things. Now, says Michael Kinsley in Time, they just promise to call in the consultants to sort things out; the only question is which firm to choose.

But why not skip the middleman? If consultants are going to run government, it would seem simpler for them to pitch their PowerPoint presentations directly at voters so that we can decide who gets their hands on taxpayers' cash. Plus from a career point of view,  "ran the US government, 2008-2012" would look great on any CV.