It's just the same with a reformer.

He hasn't been brought up in the difficult business of politics and he makes a mess of it every time.
I've been studyin' the political game for forty-five years, and! don't know it all yet.

I'm learnin' somethin' all the time.

How, then, can you expect what they call "business men" to turn into politics all at once and make a success of it?
It is just as if I went up to Columbia University and started to teach Greek.

They usually last about as long in politics as I would last at Columbia.
You can't begin too early in politics if you want to succeed at the game.