David Broder's Best Campaign Ever

Washington Post columnist David Broder, a longtime political reporter and the man known as the Dean of the Washington press corps, today proclaims this the best presidential campaign he's ever covered. Broder cites the long-running interest, the nominations of two once-unlikely candidates and the relative absence of race as a divisive issue in the campaign among his reasons.

"For decades, I have said that the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon campaign was the best I ever saw," he writes. But most of the drama in that contest came after Labor Day. This time, the excitement was generously distributed over a whole year, with moments of genuine humor from [Mike] Huckabee, a torrent of uninhibited conversation from McCain and Biden, and rare eloquence from Obama and both Clintons. The country faces a choice between two men who both promise the nation a more principled, less partisan leadership. And meanwhile, what a show it has been -- the best campaign I've ever covered."