And now, from the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and CNN, the Axviles, with your

host, David Axelrod.

I love talking with Dan Bals, the national correspondent for the Washington Post.

He is the best political writer in America and sort of the gold standard by which other

political writers measure themselves because he's thoughtful, he's sensitive and insightful.

And I sat down with him the other day to take stock of this very, very crazy presidential

race.

Dan Bals, you are, people use terms like the Dean, the Dean of Washington political journalism,

the Dean.

But you really are the gold standard when it comes to Washington and to national political

coverage.

Did you start out with the thought that someday you were going to become a political reporter?

No, I really didn't.

I started out with the idea that I'd become a reporter.

And you always wanted to be a reporter?

Well, I mean, you know, always being, how far back do you go?

I mean, it's hard to recall exactly when it kind of crystallized until college.

I mean, it was really in college that I focused on becoming a reporter.

I saw some reference to something my mother had saved years ago that when I was much younger,

I said I wanted to be a writer or something.

But that was a pretty unfocused thing.

It was in college.

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