This July 4 feels different. We no longer have a president in the White House who questions our patriotism if we disagree with him. We now have a president who understands that loyalty to country is neither conservative nor liberal. President Barack Obama recognizes that the ways we Americans express...

Conventional wisdom is that a continuing primary battle between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will damage the Democratic Party. This may well be, if the race turns into a mutual hurling of kitchen sinks, in which each candidate undermines the other and feeds the GOP attack machine.

But the prolonged...