A fundamental fact of modern political life is that the only way to advance a coherent agenda in Washington is through partisan dominance…

The boring fact of our system is that congressional math is the best predictor of a President’s success. This idea is not nearly as sexy as the notion that great Presidents are great because they twist arms in backrooms and inspire the American people to rise up and force Congress to bend to their will. But even the Presidents who are remembered for their relentless congressional lobbying and socializing were more often than not successful for more mundane reasons—like arithmetic.

In today’s Daily Comment, Ryan Lizza writes about the limits of President Obama’s power in the wake of the failed sequester deal: http://nyr.kr/XT5vgj

Photograph by Charles Dharapak/AP.

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—The race for the White House will most likely be “wide open” after Hillary Clinton serves her two terms as President, experts agree. Continue reading: http://nyr.kr/VVftBU

This week in Comment, Steve Coll evaluates Mitt Romney’s attempts to undermine President Obama while abroad: http://nyr.kr/N988Vq

“Just what kind of game is a Presidential election?” That’s the question Jill Lepore asks in Comment this week, as she looks back at Mitt Romney’s Senate race against Ted Kennedy, and the board game “Politics”: http://nyr.kr/MzXblA

A key challenge for a second-term President lies in managing the delicate balance between what he wants (his priorities) and what he thinks the public wants (his perceived mandate)—and taking care not to confuse the two.

In this week’s issue, Ryan Lizza considers the nature of a successful second-term, and what President Obama pay attempt to achieve if reelected: http://nyr.kr/MCA4Eu

The method we have built, over a couple of hundred years, for sorting out questions of guilt and innocence and probable cause, is due process. And that may be the most degraded phrase of all.

Amy Davidson on Obama’s “kill list,” and the novel power it has given the Presidency: http://nyr.kr/JPVfQk