You can't be above it all or behave as if you think the Republic is lucky to have you. Voters and reporters want to see how much you want it. Sure, it's nice for a candidate to say he has thought through nuclear proliferation, and here's how he would deal with India's medium-range ballistic missiles. If you lay out the fine print of your plans, even the press might be shamed into doing a little work to see if they actually work. Which leads me to Rule 6.
Campaigns do a whole lot more investigative reporting than investigative reporters do.
And even if you give journalists the facts, they're often reluctant to go with them. At the same time, I noticed that people in politics tend to think journalists are biased toward one candidate or another. No reporter is going to turn down a story that will put her byline on the front page. Journalists are on the side of the story that gets them the most attention. The reason is, they're not looking out at the water, they're looking at one another.