Just under the wire, Dorothy Wickenden and her insightful colleagues have contributed their last (I assume) “edition”:http://www.newyorker.com/online/2008/11/03/081030on_audio_campaign of the “Campaign Trail” podcast before the bulk of the votes are cast tomorrow (absentee voters, of which I am one, still have about a week to get their ballots in). It’s an unusually loose session, and a lot of fun: it emerges that the trio has a common history at _The New Republic_ during the Reagan-Bush years. (Hertzberg was editor, Wickenden managing editor, and Toobin frequent contributor.)
Which leaves us with a question: Wickenden closes out the podcast with a reference to a post-election episode of the podcast—I should hope so!—but what is the fate of the series once the “campaign” part of the title ceases to apply? Will it revert to a more mellow podcast devoted to politics in general, or will they pack it up until late 2011? (Or perhaps late 2010, for the midterms.) I could see merit in either decision (while selfishly contending that the process of laying down the foundations of the post-Bush era demands as much, if not more, attention by our nation’s podcasters). We’ll find out soon enough!