It's time to hail the next chief, the triumphant runner-up. Typically, at the start of a new presidency, the leaders of the major party that failed to win the White House feel that it's necessary to make an obsequious show of burying the hatchet. But for most politicians, it's the draft that clearly matters most. Wielding power is about the here and now. What Americans read, hear and watch every day shapes the media terrain through which a president walks.
Historians wait their turn.
Presidents are fond of equating their power with benevolent leadership. In the process, they substitute mythology for journalism. Despite the upbeat inaugural stories, underlying realities are apt to be quite grim.