These presidential campaigns are pretty shallow, huh?

Maybe it’s a hangover — metaphorical, not literal — from the partying of White House Correspondents’ Association dinner weekend, but this is feeling like the most vacuous presidential campaign in memory.

Okay, there’s a lot of competition in the vacuity derby. This is not the first presidential campaign to feature ponderous hand-wringers, including yours truly, bemoaning the substance-free nature of the political debate.

But the 2012 campaign is striking for the jarring mismatch between the seriousness of the country’s problems and the vagueness of the candidates’ policy prescriptions.