Congress continues to pass laws to limit lobbyists' influence, but people find ways to get around them.

Unless public officials are wealthy and fund their own campaigns, the only place they can turn to is lobbyists and institutions like labor unions and corporations.

They pass laws here in the Congress, they pass them in the states -- it all dwindles down to the city and they say, 'The mayors will take care of it,'

Congress votes for things the military doesn't want, and planes and other weaponry that cost a lot but don't work.

An early attempt at education choice was charter schools. These were meant to attract the best and brightest students and provide them a level of education they often could not find in their local school districts. The problem is that, of the thousands of charter schools, many are outright failures.

What I have learned over hundreds of campaigns is if you have lost voters who have supported you in the past, you can get them back. If you never had them, it is a very difficult sell.