In the aftermath of Paris and before San Bernardino, Hillary Clinton articulated the forced catechism of the left: "Let's be clear: Islam is not our adversary. Muslims are peaceful and tolerant people and have nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism."

Throughout the last third of George W. Bush's presidency, opinion leaders were obsessed with the question of mistakes. Among most members of the press and among Democratic officeholders (even, or perhaps especially, those who voted to approve the Iraq War), the appetite was strong to hold President Bush in a half nelson until he admitted that the war had been a terrible mistake. When Jeb Bush entered the presidential race, he was quickly charged with fraternal guilt in the matter.

Jeb Bush's campaign may be mortally wounded. Limping in the polls despite his massive war chest, he stooped (almost literally if you check the body language) to attacking Marco Rubio in an attempt to revive his fortunes. 

Think of today's Democratic Party as the little village of Hamelin. A piper called Bernie Sanders toots his socialist tune, and all the little Democrats skip along behind him to ... where exactly? According to the medieval legend, the Pied Piper of Hamelin led the children away and drowned them. 

Let's assume, for fun, that Donald Trump's supporters are thinking with their brains, not their viscera. If so, they will want to know that the issue he has lassoed for self-aggrandizement has been utterly demagogued. Trump is playing them for chumps.

The Trump bump tells us something about the state of American politics. Progressives are panting to interpret his surge as evidence of Republicans' black hearts. Some Donald Trump supporters have suggested that his success, such as it is/was (this is being written after the McCain flap and before polls have gauged its impact), is an indictment of the limp "Republican establishment." It's neither. 

I was elected to end wars, not start them. -- Barack Obama.

The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it. -- George Orwell. 

Here's what the former president of the United States had to say when he eulogized his mentor, an Arkansas senator:

They're coming for our money. OK, that's nothing new, but this time, the Obama administration is coming for our $10 bills -- the notes graced by the image of Alexander Hamilton. True to the identity politics of the Democratic Party, the Obama Treasury Department has announced that some worthy female will replace Hamilton on the currency.

Hillary Clinton had one of the worst campaign roll-outs in living memory. Her low-key (to the point of inaudibility) announcement video came in the midst of a months-long period of deeply damaging stories about her mania for secrecy (the private email server), which she indulged even at the expense of the law and national security, and her cavalier acceptance of favors in the form of donations to the Clinton Foundation.