Then, incredibly, Caddell begins working for Mondale, having wooed him with a gloomy memo while still working for Hart. Several Caddell memos, Caddell-engineered Mondale surges, and a contemplated Caddell resignation later, the election is over. They present his inside machinations as the real meat of the 1984 campaign and give his tantrums the same weight as his insights. It's hard to imagine anything he could say that Goldman and Fuller wouldn't take at face value. It isn't as if only Caddell gets this treatment either.
Every source is accorded admiration and a suspension of the journalist's normal skepticism.
Goldman and Fuller's great reportorial coup is exactly in the vein of savvy memos from a second-level political pro, only the pro is Richard Nixon. Again, too much is made of Nixon's sagacity. Others among the great don't come off very well either, which must in part be a reflection of the pros' tendency to view their clients as dummies. Mondale is a cipher, his passionate liberalism obscured by his extreme reserve, his tactical caution, and his semi-fancy taste in clothing, cigars, and restaurants. To start with a small but annoying example, the language of national politics, with its tropism toward mixed metaphors and trendy jargon, is Goldman and Fuller's language too.