Perspective

There is a good read on the history of nastiness in political contests in this country at the Christian Science Monitor . Some excerpts below.

"...as James Madison noted in Federalist No. 10, that "So strong is this propensity of mankind to fall into mutual animosities, that where no substantial occasion presents itself, the most frivolous and fanciful distinctions have been sufficient to kindle their unfriendly passions and excite their most violent conflicts."
The idea is that democracy would liberate individual self-interest and narrow political ambition to an unprecedented degree, thereby skewing our politics toward a fairly low common denominator.

Our nation's politics has seldom failed to live down to these humble expectations.

...Andrew Jackson was described by his opponents as a drunkard, bigamist, adulterer, gambler, and murderer. Abraham Lincoln likewise was viewed as an "awful woeful ass," a "dictator," a "coarse vulgar joker," and a "grotesque baboon..."

Sound familiar?? Some historians even believe that Andrew Jacksons beloved wife Rachel may have actually died shortly before his inauguration as a result of the stress of the election wherein Jacksons opponents basically called her a bigamist whore who had remarried to Jackson without a proper and legal divorce.

Kind of makes Michael Moore, Terry McAuliffe, or Teresa Heinz-Kerry look like amatuers huh? -SpinDaddy