Are the two political parties about to crack up?

If Clinton’s skittering performance illustrates the splits in the Democratic party, those in the Republican party have been glaringly apparent for some time.

Potential 2016 Republican presidential candidates have sharp differences on foreign policy generally, on drone strikes and NSA surveillance, on immigration.

They talk of repealing and replacing Obamacare, but don’t specify say how, and present no common front on taxes or entitlements. They blame the sluggish economy, plausibly, on the Obama big government policies but don’t seem anywhere close to proposing specific alternatives.

Republican primary voters have mostly been refraining from nominating dangerously provocative candidates. But their distrust of party leaders was apparent in the surprise defeat of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.