The biggest beneficiaries of modern electronic politics are the babies: they are no longer the chief recipients of presidential aspirants' saliva. The really important smooching takes place 40,000 ft. above the ground, with the traveling press corps. Kiss a baby, and maybe you will win Mom and Dad's votes. Kiss up to the media, and you can win millions.
Texas Governor George W. Bush learned that lesson fast in the 2000 primaries, when he got buried in a New Hampshire snowdrift by media darling John McCain. Bush, who had been sequestered on his private jet with his aides, began showing...