The latest news from the campaign trail involves DNC Chairman Howard Dean’s plea that Barack and Hillary stop fighting for the good of the party, so as not to jeopardize a Democratic win in November.

I imagine the press is praying the candidates don’t take that advice. After all, what else will fill the Election ‘08 special pull-out section of the paper? Articles about town-hall meetings? And how on earth will Wolf Blitzer fill those three hours on “The Situation Room”? Human-interest stories and interviews with the candidates about their platforms? Nooooooo!!! This can’t be happening!

Sure, if Hillary and Barack start braiding each other’s hair, things will get a little dull around the blog-o-sphere and the nation’s newsrooms. We’ll turn back to celebrity gossip and investigate Hollywood’s new baby bumps. But eventually, I admit, something else will inevitably come up to keep the chief political consultants on CNN doing what they do best. The big surprise, of course, is what could possibly pop up in a potential political ceasefire.

As a news editor in college, I hated when everyone was getting along on campus. The pro-Palestinian group was hosting “Interfaith This-and-That” with the pro-Israeli organization… Or nobody had been mugged in a week… Or the university acquiesced to student demands. B-O-R-I-N-G.

It’s a rather perverse notion to want something to go awry. The adage, “If it bleeds, it leads,” is frighteningly true. But it’ll be interesting to see how the press handles a relatively peaceful campaign after all the hoopla that’s preceded it. Will reporters wish for a better time? A time when campaign supporters and surrogates said really offensive stuff? When folks like Rev. Jeremiah Wright made Don Imus look like Gandhi? Or will there be some much-needed innovation to how the real political news gets reported?

For everyone’s sake, I hope the media doesn’t get what it wants.