THE PRESIDENCY by HUGH SIDEY: Winning Was the Only Thing

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What we miss for this part of the great plebiscite is the services of H.L. Mencken to write about the Carnival of Buncombe, to lay about him in good humor over the "rogues and vagabonds, frauds and scoundrels" who pump "stale bilge" around this "lugubrious ball." But even a man of such laser eye as Mencken confessed that after damning politicians uphill and downdale for years, a certain faith in the process kept re-emerging and he looked to politicians "to be able, diligent, candid, and even honest." That is a tall order, but one suspects that we will all be at it again in the next couple of months.