Political spin is as old as politics, and it is tempting to view the Campaign ’04 version as nothing more than an update of the same old, same old. Ask a dozen reporters about this campaign season and you’ll hear a dozen variations on recurrent themes: the campaigns are dishonest, the attacks and counterattacks fly nonstop, the wash of information dumped on the press is bewildering. Such assessments, though, miss a crucial new development: President Bush, Senator Kerry, and their operatives are deliberately using a cynical combination of calculated deception, speed, and volume to exploit the press’s reluctance to call...