The New York Times’s Endorsement Charade

The New York Times has created a spectacle around one of the stodgiest features of presidential primary season: The newspaper endorsement. In years past, the Times had simply splashed the name of the chosen one across its editorial page a week or so before the Iowa Caucuses, with a few bromides about “experience” and “temperament.” In the last two competitive Democratic primaries, the Times endorsed the establishment favorite Hillary Clinton, revealing both the Times’s own establishment leanings and the depths of its influence on actual voters.

This cycle, the Times...