In perhaps the most skillful game of expectations management ever played, New York City Transit has managed to restore service on a damaged subway line five years faster than it had originally estimated. (A fire destroyed some 1930s-era switching equipment last week, and the transit authority said it would take three to five years to repair it.) It's service like this that will have New Yorkers paying $5 subway fares and loving it!
Political segue: If you think about it, this is how John Kerry got to be the Democratic presidential candidate. No one expected him to do well in New Hampshire and Iowa, so when he won, it became "one of the great political stories of this decade," as Judy Woodruff put it. Or, as a friend likes to say, "Underpromise, overdeliver."
Perhaps Lawrence Reuter (head of the transit department) should be the new DNC chair -- after all, Howard Dean was a miserable failure at managing expectations.
Posted by bkeefer at February 2, 2005 05:32 PM