The Unbearable Lightness of Election 2008

thenation.com — This should be a big election about big issues. The greatest financial crisis since the Depression. Soaring global debt. Collapsing public infrastructure. A broken health care system. Gilded Age inequality. Two disastrous occupations and a failing "war on terror." Yet, until Wall Street imploded this weekend, it seemed as if no one could move the 24/7 mainstream media beyond the trivial. Tired of talking about swine and lipstick, moose and baby bumps? We are.

That's why The Nation's lead editorial this week calls for an end to gotcha journalism and the politics of distraction and diversion. It's time to say, Enough! Let's refocus this election on what's truly at stake. To that end, we're laying out a series of questions in the magazine and at TheNation.com that we believe should be asked of both candidates--not only in the upcoming debates, the first of which takes place just one week from this Friday--but by a mainstream media that seems, well, "hell-bent" on reporting on the election as if it's a new hit reality show.