Practice, Tests, and Politics

Has anyone else here ever heard the concept of doing something only makes you better at doing that one thing? I'm not sure I worded that very well, but here's an example. Take the leg extension machine at the gym. You can do them for months and all you'll get is better at doing let extensions. You won't get better at anything useful, like running up stairs. Same thing with tests. When I was loosely toying with the idea of applying to law school, I remember reading a few books on the LSAT. They all basically said the same thing, and that was this: the LSAT only tests how well you can take the LSAT, it does not test your intelligence, or even how well you'll do in law school. Which brings me around to politics. The coverage of the primaries made me realize something: an election is just the LSAT. The only thing getting elected proves, is that you're good at getting elected. It in no way demonstrates any ability to lead, make good decisions, solve problems, or do anything else useful once in office. This highlighted by coverage of these primaries. It appears that the vast majority of coverage goes to someone's "strategy", not at all their platform or qualifications. I half expect to see John Madden hop on the screen during a debate to start doing play by play.

I don't know what anyone can do about this. All I know is that more and more I follow politics, the more I seem to want to stay the fuck out of it and just hope my taxes don't go up, my health care doesn't suddenly start getting controlled by politicians, and I don't get blown up traveling somewhere. Here's hoping.