What politician says the right thing in every single public appearance, never makes a gaffe, never finds himself compelled to hold his nose and cast a vote he's not proud of? All those things can become lethal these days, and if the mainstream media doesn't immediately pick it up the blogosphere will, and it'll make its way to the mainstream media from there.

Being a presidential candidate in the US was never a cakewalk, I dare say, but of late it's becoming a madman's endeavour. And not only in the US, for that matter (though perhaps most strongly so in the US).