Joan Didion is the author of "The Year of Magical Thinking" and "We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live: Collected Nonfiction." (November 2008)

Joan Didion's Salon stories

Friday, Oct 17, 2008 04:55 PDT

Election by sound bite

Obsessed by "lipstick on a pig," economic "free fall" and other "great stories," America has failed to see the real challenges it faces.

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