Cover the Republican Primary!

Haley is the only national Republican figure who has found a way to talk about abortion that doesn’t immediately cost her a popular majority. And Haley’s general election strength is a great pitch to Republican covers — and could have been the biggest story in every publication in the country. But I’m not sure journalists’ posture above such horse race nonsense has improved American democracy. And political journalists, of all people, should resist feeling comfortable in the unearned complacency about Trump’s inevitability, and too gloomy about the fate of democracy to cover its messy process. In fact, most experienced political journalists will tell you with regret about having made this kind of mistake in the past.