there is more to picture then meets the eye

My niece is over and it is giving me some breathing room from my kids. Or at least I can breath once I change my son's diaper. I'll get the nasal roto-rooter once he is no longer diaper dependant.

Michael Barone writes a good piece about politics and covering it. Sort of a brief history of his experience and some characters he met along the way. But he mentions a series of books on elections by Theodore White. My dad found those in their house and gave them to me to read. Bartone has a couple paragraphs that describe them:

The classic accounts of American campaigns are Theodore H. White's four "Making of the President" books, from 1960 to 1972. White was part of a generation of journalists who got their start in World War II and thought their role was to celebrate our nation and our leaders. He was a fine reporter who did not ignore practical and even tawdry politics, but his tone was uplifting. His winning candidates were fine and noble, his losers decent though limited.

My literary ADHD is in full effect as I am reading three books at once, The Iliad, The Coldest Winter and finally, White's book on the 1960 election. And I have to say it is a very good read. It tells of an ill fated love story that is our elections and not a biased narrative with mens rea in mind. It spins a yarn of dreams to be fulfilled and dashed along the rocks of our political shores.
Alas, Barone seems to go into eulogy mode as he accurately describes our current media:

After Watergate, White felt betrayed by Nixon and wrote a mea culpa volume. Political journalism took a turn toward exposure rather than celebration, toward cynicism rather than awe.
But none of the fine campaign books written since have sold in anything like the numbers of White's volumes. Cynicism prevails but doesn't sell. Ronald Reagan, who was of Teddy White's generation, and who voted for 12 winning presidential candidates and only four losers in his active adult life, knew about the tawdry things yet believed there was something noble about our politics. Maybe we should feel that way, too. After all these years, I think I do.

I agree Mr. Barone. But neither side will concede to good form. The media knows "exposure" sells.

"While choice and prudence invite me to quit the political scene, patriotism does not forbid it." - George Washington's farewell address.

By the way, my son's diaper was a class 4 squirter. I used a Hazmat suit changing it.