It’s not all Macaca moments and exciting shouts of “Get a job!” for the people who trail the candidates.

Sometimes you end up at a memorial for Vietnam Veterans, and Republican Congressman Allen West is calling you a cretin, and the headline becomes: “Did Allen West Make His Tracker Cry?”

Eli Sanders was The Stranger's associate editor. His book, "While the City Slept," was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. He once did this and once won...