E.J. Dionne: Politicians aren’t as dumb as we think

Washington • Let’s posit three rules of political analysis. First, data are better than presuppositions. Second, actual votes cast can tell us more than the polls. Third, even when we carefully examine the facts, we’re all vulnerable to seeking confirmation of what we believed in the first place.On the basis of these rules, some widely accepted assumptions about our political moment can be seen as, at best, incomplete.Democrats, it’s often said, are so obsessed with Presid