Now that 2008 has arrived, the usual election-year hysteria is building. Democracy is supposedly on the march. That overwhelming wave of pandering and dim insights that runs across America every four years has come again, like some unwelcome high tide that forces me to pull my martini glass out of the sand and head for higher ground. Every media outlet known to man—from the rosy heights of the New York Times to the blightful lows of the tabloid trash—will be spending the next nine months shoveling opinions, lies, and a condescension upon an already weary public.

The Stranger, unfortunately, will be no different. Already knee-deep in this year's election, Eli Sanders—the sharpest of pencils on this paper's staff (faint praise, of course)—was dispatched last week to Iowa for the first salvo of the presidential nominating contest, the Iowa caucuses. The resulting piece, which also covers this week's New Hampshire primary, can be found within these pages. It's a thick, well-informed read—at least for those delusional souls who believe a tax-and-spend, run-for-cover liberal is just what this country needs.

Thankfully, Sanders's predictable leftyism is tempered somewhat by the presence of the notable Jonathan Raban, who files an intriguing companion piece on Democratic front-runner Barack Obama's inspirations as a public speaker. Just why a talented intellectual such as Mr. Raban would stoop so low as to be published in The Stranger—continually, as this is one of several pieces he's contributed over the years—remains a deep mystery. But his talents do help to cleanse the palate of the unsavory trash that surrounds his article, and for that I am grateful. My advice: Give Mr. Raban's piece a thorough read only after tearing it free from the issue.

In the usual atrocities: This week's news section tackles such weighty topics as the closing of a bowling alley, complaints about a local restaurant, and mysterious feces found on a local street. I hesitate to even begin a critique of that last item, for I fear that the news department is merely baiting me with such nonsense. But since it served up such an easy pitch, I will say: Further proof that this paper's news writers wouldn't know a story if they stepped in it. Meanwhile, the bowling-alley dispatch smacks particularly hollow. The Stranger is decrying the effects of the density they've long stumped for? Chickens and homecomings and roosts definitely come to mind. Meanwhile, in the various arts sections we find very little to critique outside of a handful of theater and film reviews, as well as that weekly flip-past section labeled "Music." Yes, music coverage—if barely literate cheerleading can be called coverage—is The Stranger's bread and butter (or is that weed and bong?), but if we've come to learn anything over the years, it's that this paper's most popular sections are generally its most feeble. This, understandably, continues to perplex and befuddle—indeed, it goes against not just common sense, but well-established journalism paradigms—but there you have it. In other words: Don't fight it, just accept it. Or if you have even a single thought in your head, ignore it altogether.