Abstract
In this essay, we confront the "conventional wisdoms'' promoted throughout this long presidential campaign. By conventional wisdoms, we mean the common knowledge of politics-the things that commentators and analysts forward as taken-for-granted assertions and beliefs. We will revisit just a few of the campaign season's conventional wisdoms and review them with a sociological eye. In so doing, we find that in politics, as in most other areas, conventional wisdom can be a risky source of knowledge.