, Columnist
One American Political Party Works
A pox on one of their houses.
Singing from the same hymn book.
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
President Barack Obama handed the political baton to Hillary Clinton today, with an endorsement that was telegraphed before the 2016 presidential campaign even began. In a few weeks, at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia, he will symbolically hand over leadership of the party, as well.
This transition is structured, anticipated, consistent, orderly and boring. Which is one way of saying that the Democratic Party is a coherent, well-functioning political institution that bears little resemblance to the cascading disasters that define the Republican Party and yielded Donald Trump as its likely presidential nominee.