John Tierney wagged a finger in yesterday's New York Times:

When they walk on stage to address their cheering supporters this Tuesday night, the Democratic presidential candidates might want to consider a new mantra: It's the living room, stupid....

...in New Hampshire last Tuesday, the candidates were still spending their precious moments on national television thanking aides and volunteers. Just when they could finally stop pandering to voters, they went on rhapsodizing about the locals' hospitality for so long that the networks cut them off in midspeech....

It may seem cruel to subject a roomful of supporters to a stump speech they already know word for word. John Kerry's volunteers presumably do not want to be rewarded at a victory party with a speech about his tax policies; John Edwards's workers do not need to hear for the millionth time that he is the son of a millworker.

But only 20 percent of Americans know that Mr. Edwards's father worked in a mill, and two-thirds do not recognize the most rudimentary distinction in the candidates' tax policies, according to the latest National Annenberg Election Survey from the University of Pennsylvania. It's hard for the crowd at an election-night party to imagine so many Americans know so little about the candidates, but those channel-surfers in the living rooms are the ones who will be picking the next president.

Oh, I get it, John: It's the candidates' fault if voters don't know their stories and their platforms. The fact that you and most of your media colleagues can't bear to cover anything besides the horse race or gaffes (Dean's scream) has nothing to do with it.