Last month's election returns are still warm, but the political focus is already shifting to the 2008 presidential campaign, the most wide-open race in at least half a century. In the last two weeks, nearly half a dozen would-be occupants of the Oval Office have made it clear they plan to run. Some, like Sen. John McCain, have done this before. Others, including Sen. Sam Brownback and Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, are presidential-campaign neophytes. *

Lest they or anyone else forget the perils of a White House run, we present our latest NewsLit Newsreel. It relates the cautionary tale of Sen. Gary Hart, who ran for the Democratic nomination in 1988.

Click on the video screen to launch more NewsLit videos.

NewsLit Newsreels are produced by the creative team at VidLit.

Send comments to Podcasts@Slate.com.

Correction, Dec. 8, 2006: The original version of this article referred to Tom Vilsack as the former governor of Iowa. He leaves office in January 2007. (Return  to the corrected sentence.)