It seems that successful businessman make terrible government:

The politics of disastrous management

A striking number of businesspeople prove to be failures as politicians. Paul O’Neill was one of Alcoa’s most successful bosses. But, as Mr Bush’s first treasury secretary, he was rapidly reduced to a laughing-stock. Ross Perot turned Electronic Data Systems into a giant. But his two runs for the presidency left most Americans with the impression that his tray table is not in the fully upright and locked position. Donald Rumsfeld was a successful boss of two big companies. But his name is synonymous with one of the worst-managed wars in American history.

Bringing businesspeople into politics can also produce corruption and cronyism. Russia’s oligarchs flit between government and business. Mr Berlusconi has built conflict of interest into the heart of Italian life. Dick Cheney, a former boss of Halliburton, an oil-and-gas company, made sure his secretive energy task-force relied heavily on his buddies from the energy industry.

This is not to imply that politicians are paragons of either virtue or competence. But the most important thing in politics is structure, not personnel. The best way to inject the virtues of business into public life is not to draft in a few ex-bosses—even outstanding ones like Ms Whitman—but to introduce as much choice and competition as possible into the public sector.

Sources / More info: ec-CApol