Don’t Believe (Your Party's) Hype

Republicans, and some Democrats, are telling themselves tall tales.

President Obama said often that sensible people can gather to devise solutions to our country’s most pressing problems. He said partisan interests, in the end, would give way to reason, the national interest and the common good. That’s what he said.

His problem: he believed it.

At least, he did in the beginning of his presidency. By the end, he realized …