We’re in the “dog days” of summer. The name is redolent of weariness, exhaustion, dog-tiredness. Politicians, being steamed in the heat of a Washington July, yearn to get away for recess, just as everyone else longs to reach the beach.

It’s also now, in the second summer of any presidential term, that electoral politics can be seen most clearly as the endless grind that it is. Four months before we even vote in midterm congressional elections, and six or seven months before presidential aspirants reveal themselves as official candidates, a small lineup of hopefuls and the hopeless begin to hint that they’re running for the White House.