In the face of polls and horse-race maneuvering, we can try to keep from getting sucked in by it all. We should examine a candidate’s public record and full life as opposed to his or her campaign performance.

This stunningly banal declaration occurs in (a) a fifth-grade civics lesson (if there are any such anymore), (b) the confession of a minor pundit in a minor banana republic, (c) a still-clueless-after-all-these-years mea culpa by one of the most influential journohonchos of recent years, just published on the op-ed page of the NYT.

The answer, of course, is (c). The author of this little masterpiece of the elementary is Mark Halperin, now an eminence at Time, formerly guru of ABC's self-congratulatory "The Note."

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