Reporters: We loathe 2012 campaign

Presidential campaigns are supposed to be the greatest show in American politics — infused with big ideas and historical import. Yet after 16 months enduring a Republican primary and then a two-man contest so far defined by gaffes, cynicism, knife-fights and rapid-fire news cycles, even the best political reporters want the whole thing over with.

Yet another high-profile veteran campaign correspondent had his Howard Beale moment this week — mad as hell (or rather, sad as hell) and not willing to take it anymore — when Mark Leibovich lamented the devastating “joylessness” of the 2012 grind and wondered what the hell he was doing with his life. “How am I ever going to get through it?” the chief national correspondent of The New York Times Magazine asked. But his cri de coeur is just the latest primal scream in a campaign that is sending a whole generation of journalists to the confessional.