The theatricality of an election campaign is unavoidable. A nationwide appeal to fifteen million voters needs a touch of showmanship. A good act helps to alert voters to their civic responsibility. Throwing the switch to vaudeville, in Keating’s memorable phrase, is a useful skill for the leading actors in the drama.

But the six-week election campaign, with its frantic movement and manufactured events is an elaborate confidence trick. A conspiracy between political parties and their willing accomplices in the media, abetted by myriad barrow-pushing groups, the campaign is not what it pretends to be.