Regardless of who wins this bitterly contested election, the victor will face the same basic, daunting, task: reconciling the vast promises that have been made, both in this campaign and earlier, with the government’s limited ability to meet those promises. It won’t be easy. You can blame Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton or both for this campaign’s guttural nature —the lies, …

  Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump say they oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal among 12 countries. The second-place finisher in each party’s presidential primaries —Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz —opposed it, too. These facts would seem to doom the Obama administration’s goal of getting Congress to approve the agreement between the election and the inauguration of the …

  Amid this divisive and miserable (and thankfully over) U.S. presidential campaign, one menacing subplot hasn’t received the kind of attention it deserves: the Russian government’s effort to disrupt the American political and electoral process. In July, hackers dumped a trove of stolen e-mails from the Democratic National Committee, leading its chairwoman to resign. A few weeks later, the personal …