What we get instead is more of the same: a sustained presidential trolling of conservatives and Republicans, as the president uses the bully pulpit to provoke, to titillate, to polarize. With no other goal in mind than to make the GOP look extremist.

I wonder if the Clintons have considered just how big a liability Obama could be by Election Day. It’s no mystery why Hillary Clinton has remained loyal to the president—she wants to reproduce the coalition that elected him twice. But Obama is going to make it terribly difficult for her. His approval rating has been underwater for months. Two-thirds of the country says we’re on the wrong track. Not only does Hillary have to worry about the international situation; she has to worry about troubling signs at home.

It won’t be guns that decide the 2016 election but the economy and ISIS. The president is powerless on the former issue and ineffectual on the latter one. The Democratic frontrunner is unlikable and untrustworthy and running for her party’s third consecutive term. The Republican frontrunner is this man. This year is seven days old—and it’s already depressing.