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One strange quality of writing about political campaigns is that it's a little like writing about a baseball game inning by inning. We presume we can say something about the final result from the state of play a third of the way through. You can when a game is a colossal blowout, but you can't when it's close.

The important things that in a campaign we talk about, let us not forget that once the election is over.

A couple of weeks is a long time in American politics.

What campaigns are for is weeding out the people who, for one way or another, weren't making it for the long haul.

In every election in American history both parties have their cliches. The party that has the cliches that ring true wins.

Journalism is in fact history on the run.

I know that campaigns can seem small, and even silly. Trivial things become big distractions. Serious issues become sound bites. And the truth gets buried under an avalanche of money and advertising. If you're sick of hearing me approve this message, believe me - so am I.

Journalism talk is part of the nonstop background noise of American life.

The degree to which campaigns have become dominated by marketing is breaking the spirit of democracy, and we're all just so sick of it, across party lines.