Why didn’t Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg rush over and fix Southwest Airlines ’ crew-scheduling snafu? Why didn’t he save the day with his programming skills after outside contractors rummaging around a Federal Aviation Administration computer closet deleted vital software that caused the nation’s air traffic control system to crash? Of course such criticism is unrealistic. We should be asking instead whether we’re glad Mayor Pete is on the job to straighten things out. He has yet to excel at federal spin but we should also be looking for something else: whether he will use the opportunity to move forward a stalled reform agenda that is no mystery to anyone and lacks movement only for want of investment of political capital.

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