This is true - to a point - but as the current debates suggest, the size of the tumor is not the only important factor.
The current debate about health care reform suggests a further proviso: the second best should not be the enemy of the third best.
But last fall's debate over economic stimulus suggested that our political leadership cannot make a rational response to economic problems.
Some experts say the status of American industrial research may be far worse than the debate over exchange rates so far suggests.
But the current debate suggests just how hard it is becoming to translate the wishes into rational policy.
But the debate suggests how difficult it must be for them to decide whether they have raised interest rates enough.
The provisions that the bill would repeal are more complex than today's debate on the House floor would suggest.
The Congressional debate over growth and taxes suggests that there may be a way to balance the Federal budget after all.
The emerging debate suggests that the two men could be preparing for a contest of dramatic contrasts this fall.
The current debate suggests, however, that an increasingly polyglot America has yet to come to grips with the full depth of its diversity.