This study breaks new ground in investigating candidate behavior in American electoral campaigns. It centers
on a question of equal importance to citizens and scholars: how can we produce better political campaigns? First,
Simon develops the idea of dialogue as a standard for evaluating political campaigns. Second, he reveals that candidates'
self-interest in winning leads to avoiding dialogue or substantive campaign discourse. Third, the text demonstrates
the beneficial effects produced by the little dialogue that actually occurs and finally, pinpoints the forces responsible
for these rare occurrences.