Is it just me or have the political parties switched roles this election? The normally hapless Democrats have become an imperious, on-message political machine. The habitually martial GOP, which stays on message like drill sergeants stay on G.I.'s, lacks an overarching message this year, to the point where its conservative base is as energized as a turtle. Ever since the formative Reagan era, in which the GOP emerged from its post-Watergate swamp of embarrassment and strategist Lee Atwater propagated the Big Tent myth, Republicans have run aggressive, targeted, laser-like message machine presidential campaigns. What else could have transformed an inarticulate...