It is a puckish survey of the blunders and idiocies political flesh is heir to, and a lament that today’s stage-managed campaigns make it so hard to put gaffes in context. As old cultural taboos eroded in the seventies and eighties, reporters began revealing what once had been off limits. Political consultants responded by laying down smoke screens around their candidates. Today’s frustrated campaign journalists prize any glimmer of authenticity, even when it comes secondhand from a disgruntled room-service waiter.