Many thoughtful commentators have lamented over the death of public argument in American politics. Even as the quantity of political speech has increased, the quality of argument in the public sphere has grown noticeably more impoverished. Nowhere is this paradox more evident than in presidential campaigns. The length of these campaigns has increased in recent years, yet there seems to be less and less discussion of the issues. Spending on these campaigns has reached record highs, but the amount of meaningful information provided to voters to assess the candidates has decreased. Opinion polls have become more common, and reporting on poll results has become a substitute for substantive coverage of the campaigns. Candidates are seemingly always in the media , but the length of each exposure has decreased as sound bites have grown shorter and shorter. No personal narrative is too tragic, no personal matter too private, when candidates are appealing for votes.