We are already in the midst of the Presidential political season. Where once labor day was the official start of our national poltical drama, today it is a multi-year, multi-dimensional business. One in which presumably ordinary people must acquire that mixture of ambition, stamina, and pure shamelessness that makes a true candidate.

Adlai Stevenson one said that, “the hardest thing about any political campaign is how to win without proving that you are unworthy of winning."

Samuel Popkin, a Professor of Political Science at UC San Diego, and one of our most astute political observers, takes a look at The Candidate: What it Takes to Win - and Hold - the White House.

My conversation with Samuel Popkin:

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