The Times has a profile about Mayor De Blasio, half-way into his first term. In the quasi-mea-culpa De Blasio says, “I want to do better.” But I was struck by this:

And he conceded that after a long career as an advocate and strategist, the work of leading 8.5 million New Yorkers has proved more complicated than he expected.

“When you actually have to start with the substance,” Bill de Blasio said on Monday, “the world gets a little more interesting.”

That reminded me of a quote from Charlie Savage’s new book from a “Senior Obama Administration official.”

It was around this time that a senior member of the Obama legal team told me that governing had turned out to be more complicated than criticizing from the private sector or campaigning.

Birds of a feather.