Nasty campaign ads an American tradition

(CBS News) WASHINGTON - With all the nastiness we've seen lately, it's easy to wonder, are we headed toward one of the dirtiest campaigns ever?

Well, here's the dirty little secret; the short answer is no. As author Lara Brown pointed out in US News and World Report last week, America has a long history of ugly presidential campaigns.

They haven't gotten worse; they're just following a tradition as old as the republic.

Thomas Jefferson's campaign against President John Adams was probably the first really nasty one. Jefferson's supporters accused Adams of being a hermaphrodite with "neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman." In response, the Adams campaign accused Jefferson of being the son of a half-breed Indian squaw and a mulatto father.

In the 1828 campaign, John Quincy Adams' supporters called Andrew Jackson a murderer, his mother a prostitute, and his wife an adulteress.

In 1876, Democrats accused Republican candidate Rutherford B. Hayes of two heinous crimes: shooting his own mother, and stealing the pay of dead soldiers while he was a Union general.

And as Brown points out, the role of the media in all this has not been exactly stellar.

In 1896, The New York Times was supporting Republican William McKinley and ran an article about his opponent William Jennings Bryan titled, "Is Bryan Crazy?" It cited one anonymous source whose identity, the newspaper said, it was not at liberty to give.

On and on, it has gone down through the years: Clinton and McCain accused of fathering illegitimate children, the stuff about Obama's birth certificate and Romney being blamed for the death of a cancer victim.

So it's nothing new, that's for sure. But as my mother used to say, just because something has always been that way, doesn't mean it's right.

[MaxK341]

A man can't build himself up by making someone else look bad. Why not discuss the issues and forget character assassination.

[johntlofty]

Since being inaugurated, Obama has been attacked from all sides for being a socialist, for being a capitalist tool, for being soft on terrorists, for civilian deaths while trying to kill terrorists. Clinton and Bush both took a lot of heat during their terms, but Obama's opponents on the right seek to completely delegitimize his Presidency.

Every President has to deal with criticism, but I've never seen such an adamant refusal on the part of so many people to accept that Obama is a legitimate President. The outcry over George W. Bush's winning of the 2000 election through a court battle over 'hanging chads' pales in comparison. Even the long, ridiculous assault on Bill Clinton's Presidency over extra-marital affairs didn't bring the kind of direct attacks on his Presidential legitimacy that Obama has received.

[Rafterman11]

Many righties are an example of what a blog writer named Miles Spicer wrote about the far right and why they continue to push the lies and misinformation about Obama - the most lied-about president in history:

"In my opinion it is the xenophobic fear many (and mostly white) Americans have as our country changes from a largely white/European nation to one of color. Barack Obama is a metaphor, a symbol, a foreshadowing of that change. And to many white Americans that is unsettling, unpleasant, and frankly ... scary! They hope, and believe that ridding the country of Obama will stop that trend, and as they say "take back our country." These are telling words. Take back our country. To whom, from whom?"

[myth1958]

Bob Schieffer is spot on, again, as he compares the dust-up between Romney and Obama to elections past. Those fabled 'Founding Fathers' weren't so honorable in their day - accusing one another of libelous things our society wouldn't tolerate, these days. It's good we've evolved. Now, our candidates depose each other's policies, mostly. Works for me.

[marychgo]

I don't know where all these folks with such delicate sensibilities are coming from. Aaron Burr KILLED Alexander Hamilton in a duel. Andy Jackson's opponents were so brutal that his wife had a nervous breakdown. Throughout the 19th century, most newspapers were allied with one party or the other, and printed the most scurrilous (and utterly undocumented) claims about the candidates of the other party.

If I have ONE complaint about the way today's media interpret their obligation to provide "objective" coverage, it's that most stories become "he said/he said" narratives. Sometimes, it's true that both sides are shading the truth, but OFTEN one side is outright LYING. And it's a REAL problem that most "objective" media won't say that.
Obama DIDN'T "take the work requirement out of welfare"; his Justice Department DIDN'T try to eliminate active-duty servicemembers' right to vote early on the weekend before the election in Ohio; and that $716 million the Romney/Ryan team is so obsessed with didn't take ANYTHING away from Medicare beneficiaries; it took money away from insurance companies and other providers. But most "objective" media won't tell you that!

[CaptainSmollett]

The fact that a sitting president stoops so low in his campaign reflects his moral bankruptcy and lack of accomplishment. It is offensive to most civil-minded people, and the worst I've seen in my lifetime. So come on Bob Schieffer, stop with the spin. This is as disgusting as it gets.

[Rafterman11]

Then they are even. Because I never saw a political party, like the GOP, stoop so low in their efforts to delegitimize a sitting president. Birth certificates, being a secret Muslim, death panels, FEMA death camps, communism, Marxism, socialism, teleprompters, taking our guns - Obama has been abused and delegitimized by the right wing on unprecedented levels the second he announced his presidency. If the GOP refuses to be respectful, why should Obama be respectful of them?

[MegaProcrastination]

"""But as my mother used to say, just because something has always been that way, doesn't mean it's right."""

As soon as the mud slinging starts these candidates lose any credibility they had because it shows just how low they're willing to stoop to stay or get into office. The whole thing makes me sick.

[heladio9]

I'm 59 years old and I still don't know where this country is! One week I'm asked to follow the "racist" comments and regard it as the truth! If I was a racist, the last place I'd let everybody know would have been in the room "shoeless" Joe was in. True, if he would have said "we all" then I would have given it some thought, but alas, we don't live in a perfect world (in regards to truth, not racism). The next week we may be asked to consider, as truth the fact that there are illegitimate children of politicians floating around out there, somewhere. Well heck, come on out, we all would like to meet you. The point is...just that, the point of focus. I was once told that in a free enterprise economy, one had to spend money to make money, and if you didn't have it then you had to borrow it, provided you were willing to take the risk and had the promise of goods/services that were in demand. If this were 50 or so years ago you could say the opportunities were still there, but now competition has become ridiculously widespread that you also need a gimmick...see where this is going? We have to make some serious adjustments and it's not gonna be a cakewalk. No darkness just some hardcore brainstorming, would be in order. This years campaigns should show "us all" we can put our trust in politics again. But then again PAC money don't come easy! C-ya...'Nuff Said and the Institute for the Decomposition of the Composite. P.S. No formal education was used in the thoughtlessness of this message and I approved it!

[heladio9]

Forgot to mention...thanks again for the historical stuff on campaigns past. Good work. It's always amusing to see what was tried by the opposing sides.

[soniesue]

I'm 74 years old. This is the most disgusting campaign in modern history..........and Obama started it. A pity, too, because I actually voted for him in 2008.

[johntlofty]

Romney's allies started this fight by funding the birther movement. John McCain actually did the decent thing and denounced such nonsense. Maybe Romney figures that's why McCain lost, but Romney is being a coward.