We've become accustomed to talking about all kinds of abstract capital in recent years - human capital, social capital, intellectual capital - but Bush's definition of political capital makes the metaphor particularly inapt. For one, you don't spend capital. You invest it. But Bush's understanding of the idea dictates that it be spent rather than saved. As Karl Rove put it in 2001, "If you don't spend it, it's not like treasure stuck away at a storehouse someplace. It is perishable. It dwindles away." What kind of economic message is that from a president who wants to encourage an ownership society?

-Chris Suellentrop, in America's New Political Capital on Slate

Bonus points for mentioning the Review of Austrian Economics and "hyper-inflating cash that has to be spent before it becomes worthless"!