WHY THE MSM DOESN'T LIKE WONKS

First, something from Glenn Greenwald:

The central paradox of our political life is that the right-wing faction that continues to dominate our political institutions and win elections embraces fringe beliefs which have little popular support. That's why their overarching objective is to remove substantive considerations from our political debates -- the more consequential the issue, the less establishment media attention it receives, the less real public debate there is over it. Instead, our elections are determined by the barren, petty personality-based distractions and mindless chatter that define the lowly Drudgian Freak Show, where our political life now almost exclusively resides.

I'd like to add that the right-wing also wants to avoid real discussions because their candidates are so ill-informed. Here's just one example from US News & World Report:

"If this comes down to some policy wonk debate between McCain and Hillary or Obama, well, we're not going to win that one," is how a John McCain political adviser, in a recent chat with me, assessed the Republican presidential candidate.