Bridging the torrent

IN THE end, Bernie Sanders came through. The senator from Vermont had threatened to take his fight for a “political revolution” to the floor of the Democratic National Convention, which was held in Philadelphia between July 25th and 28th. But when his aggrieved supporters had the temerity to take that threat seriously, by booing the convention’s early stages, Mr Sanders tried to calm them, and just about succeeded. Reprising the healing role Hillary Clinton played on behalf of Barack Obama in 2008 when she was the loser, it was he who declared her the Democratic presidential nominee. Mrs Clinton is the first woman to fill that role for either of America’s main parties.