Leadership Quote by George Voinovich

Perfection is the most respectable form of obstruction in American politics, and Voinovich is calling it out with a Midwestern pragmatist's impatience. The line is less a philosophical musing than a tactical complaint: in Washington, "perfect" often functions as a veto dressed up as principle. By framing the alternative as "good" and "makes sense", he casts incrementalism not as cowardice but as rational governance, the kind that survives contact with budgets, committee markups, and the reality that someone has to pay for everything.

The phrasing does a lot of work. "People in this country" widens the target beyond a single party or faction, suggesting a national habit of moralizing policy choices into purity tests. "So bent" implies stubbornness, almost a kink in the civic spine. And the scare-quoted "perfect" signals skepticism: he's not rejecting excellence, he's rejecting the rhetorical cudgel of perfectionism, the way it gets deployed to kill workable compromises. It's a politician's critique of political theater.

Contextually, this is the voice of a Republican who often leaned toward deal-making and fiscal restraint, especially in eras when grand bargains on budgets, health care, or infrastructure collapsed under ideological demands. The cost-benefit language isn't accidental; it appeals to a managerial notion of public service, where outcomes outrank applause lines. The subtext is a warning: insisting on perfection doesn't produce better policy; it produces nothing, and "nothing" still has a price.