Activists measure progress against the standard of perfection, or at least the most perfect possible choice. Historians gauge progress against what came before it.

I worry about the entire structure of American democracy under Trump.

Everything on Twitter is true.

Barack Obama is pretty similar to the person you see in public, at press conferences. He's a little saltier, a little more sarcastic and cutting.

I don't think the Democrats need a silver bullet.

Because many people remembered a time when the Republican Party was not so extreme, and hadn't full grasped how much it had changed, people blamed Obama for his failure to get Republicans to agree with him. That blame coloured so much of how the public saw Obama during his presidency. The public thought he was dealing with a brand of Republican leader that just didn't exist any more.

Barack Obama is extremely smart.