The reporter goes limp and forfeits to the candidate.

I paraphrased Eugene McCarthy above, in part because I can't find his precise quotation. The closest I got to his original was testimony by Earl Ravenal at a 1978 House Committee on the Budget. Said Ravenal, "There is a statement Eugene McCarthy made last year. He said, 'It isn't the fat in the defense budget that ought to worry us; it's the lean." Send better citations to slate.pressbox@gmail.com. (E-mail may be quoted by name in "The Fray," Slate's readers' forum; in a future article; or elsewhere unless the writer stipulates otherwise. Permanent disclosure: Slate is owned by the Washington Post Co.)

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