discordance between economic data and political rhetoric is familiar, or should be. Republican economists caution against taking this data as proof that their party is lousy at economic policy. “I don’t know what G.D.P. growth was during the Washington and Lincoln Administrations, but the institutional developments in those terms had large and long-lasting effects.” There are more differences between Sulla and Trump, Rome and the U.S., than there are similarities, but that doesn’t discredit the resemblances. And, she granted, “you have to look at where she has acknowledged that we need to do something different—we can do better—and where she has expressed regret.” But, as the criticism of Clinton as First Lady became more caustic, Karel became more empathetic. “When I’m playing him, I feel powerful,” the Donald