...Clinton is running for president. The president isn’t some dictator who can just change the country however he or she wants. The reality is that the executive powers are limited, since presidents don’t write legislation. It’s an office that rewards a willingness to work through bureaucracy and to express power in incremental, detailed ways, especially if you’re saddled with a Congress that opposes you, which any Democrat who wins almost surely will be.

“The only way President Sanders or President Clinton will accomplish anything is through skilled use of bureaucratic power,” Jamelle Bouie of Slate writes, noting that Republican gridlock in Congress makes sweeping legislative change impossible. “Clinton’s bureaucratic experience, her skill with partisan conflict, and her clear willingness to work against the spirit of the law—as illustrated by her State Department email controversy—make her a prime pick for this era of political grinding.” It’s the kind of politics that doesn’t fit well into barnstorming politics, but it’s exactly what will work in our highly partisan era.