With Turkey Day done, the primary season has officially entered its dead zone:  A time when the electorate is too busy stuffing, shopping, obsessing, boozing and sleeping it all off to pay much attention to what the candidates are saying or avoiding saying or said out loud in public before they decided to run for President. 

For anyone in the mood for some soul searching, this op-ed piece by Mark Halperin in yesterday’s New York Times is not a bad place to start.  In it, he talks about "What It Takes," Richard Ben Cramer’s behemoth account of the 1988 presidential campaign and its impact on election coverage today.  Here’s a sample: 

The book’s thesis — that prospective presidents are best evaluated by their ability to survive the grueling quadrennial coast-to-coast test of endurance required to win the office — has shaped the universe of political coverage.

 

Voters are bombarded with information about which contender has “what it takes” to be the best candidate. Who can deliver the most stirring rhetoric? Who can build the most attractive facade? Who can mount the wiliest counterattack? Whose life makes for the neatest story? Our political and media culture reflects and drives an obsession with who is going to win, rather than who should win.

Amen.

But my overall impression of Cramer’s book—and yes, I have only read a fraction of its 1,000 pages--is that it really raises the same questions that Halperin does. Cramer’s depiction of the near sighted and partially disabled Bob Dole agonizing over images of George H.W. Bush throwing snowballs and driving forklifts as his party’s nomination slips from his hand is particularly arresting.

Is a really good candidate tantamount to a really good Commander-in-chief?  Shouldn’t our process-oriented media spend more time sweating the candidates on their records and positions rather than fawning over artful evasions and disseminating pre-packaged political narratives?

I think the answer is a definite maybe.  And in 2010, when we’ve had time to settle in with our new president, it will be interesting to see how he or she compares to the candidate we elected in 2008.