The really good ones though, take us behind the scenes of the electorate itself. They examine not just how power passes, but how the nature of the country changes every four years. Presidential votes are different than other kinds of elections. They are a kind of national gut check of the mood, temper, culture and divisions of the time. They tell us about the candidates, but more importantly, the really good reporting also give us a snapshot of ourselves.
That's what Washington Post Chief Correspondent Dan Balz has done in Collision 2012: Obama vs. Romney and the Future of Elections in America
My conversation with Dan Balz: