PLYMOUTH NOTCH, Vermont -- When was the last time you heard a member of one political party praise a member of the other party? Here in this hamlet nestled among the Green Mountains, former Baltimore Democratic Mayor Kurt Schmoke rose to speak well of our 30th president, Calvin Coolidge, a Republican. The occasion was the annual celebration of Coolidge's birthday on July 4, the only president born on the day we celebrate America's birth. Perhaps it takes the death of one and the absence from public office of another (Schmoke is now president of the University of Baltimore) to cool...