HILLARY’S VICTORY: The Machine Prevails.

Over at Vox, Ezra Klein showers Hillary Clinton with praise for what he says are her “extraordinary,” and under-appreciated, political skills. She may not inspire much enthusiasm at the grassroots, she may not suck the oxygen out of a room, and she may not bring crowds to their feet, Klein says, but she is an expert practitioner of the art of elite coalition-building—of winning over Democratic interest groups, donors, and power brokers—and that, ultimately, is what matters. . . .

Put aside the questionable assertion that courting political elites is an inherently “feminine” quality, and that outsider-populism is “masculine.” That may or may not be true, but it is tangential to a more important point that Klein’s essay inadvertently highlights: Hillary Clinton is a machine politician. Her capture of the Democratic nomination depended on the extraordinary and unprecedented engine of influence-peddling—of “honest graft”—that she and her husband have labored to build and maintain ever since they left the White House in 2001. . . .

The Clinton machine had enough reach to clear the field of credible establishment opposition before the race began, and keep anxious Democrats on the sidelines when the former First Lady started to face ethical questions (many of which, like her Goldman Sachs speaking fees, and the dubious Clinton Foundation-State Department connection, can be considered collateral damage of machine-style politics). Finally, the network of elite Democratic interest groups and kingmakers that the Clintons had carefully cultivated over the years was loyal enough to help put down the Sanders uprising. From the teachers’ unions to immigrant interest groups to LGBT and gender activist organizations, the machine’s clients delivered.

The graft isn’t actually “honest.”