Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal ponders California circling the drain while the presidential candidates mouth platitudes and attack each other, careful to avoid discussion of real issues.

We care about California. We read every day of the bankruptcies, the reduced city services, the businesses fleeing. California is going down. How amazing is it that this is happening in the middle of a presidential campaign and our candidates aren't even talking about it?

She goes on to make more serious points about how the vicious negativity of both presidential ad campaigns perpetuates the belief we are a nation that believes in nothing and in which any behavior, no matter how noxious, is permitted.

Noonan's point about California is well-taken. California used to be a beacon for the rest of the country. Now it's collapsing, and no one knows what to do, including Californians. State and municipal governing bodies studiously ignore growing and massive financial problems, irresponsibly and cynically pretending everything is fine when it rather clearly isn't. What do these politicians believe in, if anything? What will they fight for? That's the question Noonan asks politicians and the nation.