Are We Getting the Leaders We Deserve?

For serious students of politics and government, this year's presidential campaign has been a travesty: Donald Trump, bragging about his ratings; a discussion of his anatomy; a Twitter war about candidates' wives. In the past few days, political commentators and reporters have been asking if the news media — themselves included — have been responsible — as if it's all something new. But for Matt Bai, national political columnist for Yahoo News, it's all too familiar. He's author of All the Truth Is Out: The Week Politics Went Tabloid, a book about a presidential candidacy that ended abruptly in 1987.