Jim Wallis, the chief executive of Sojourners, a social justice organization, said the battle over the automatic cuts, called "sequestration," is "a good but tragic example of how the idea of the common good is failing in American politics".
But excessive generosity is a good human failing, in politics as elsewhere.
According to this gospel, cars and freeways were good for failing cities, and urban density was bad.
The next mayor will have to find a way of cultivating the good without failing to suppress the bad.
By the end of the forties, he was constantly exhausted, and his eyes, never good, were failing.
Later on, he presented himself as the "college geek" and "complete nerd" who had made it good, despite failing to earn a degree.
On that particular day, he made a depressing visit to a school in Syracuse, N.Y., that was like so many he'd seen before: "a dispiriting exercise in good people failing," as he described it to me recently.
Historians may debate whether his previous acts displayed bravery or foolishness, but there can be little doubt that he is doing his country no good by failing to heed the sincere and urgent request of Israel's closest ally.
The Bayern Munich midfielder was a constant danger, but twice in the early moments he spurned good chances, failing to make clean contact when the ball broke to him six yards from goal and shooting narrowly over with the goal at his mercy.
Newcastle picked up the pace once more at the start of the second half and after Riviere had missed another good chance, failing to connect with Daryl Janmaat's cross from six yards out, the breakthrough the whole of Tyneside craved arrived after 54 minutes.
