People are always saying "this is the dirtiest election I can remember," BUT...

[Bicoastal]

...they say that every 4 years! Can anyone remember an election that WASN'T dirty, where both candidates were respectful and didn't spend the entire election tearing each other to pieces and saying America would would be a scary scary place if they didn't win?

Admittedly, I'm only 26, my recollection of elections past is not so good...

[sakabatou]

1. I can't either...

[terrya]

2. I remember Watergate and this election is much, much worse than 1972.

[Genevieve]

3. This is the worst - and the dirt is only coming from their side. nt

[stuntcat]

9. and this time..

this time they have a whole bunch of people thinking Biblical prophesy depends on US :eyes:

[stolivodka]

4. 1996 wasn't all that bad.

You know.. compared to today..

What I don't recall is a debate that the mainstream media didn't immediately insist was "a tie".

[DainBramaged]

5. It does become dirtier and dirtier every year

Rethuglicans stoop to new lows because technology gives them the opportunity.

[busymom]

6. Every election I've ever known has been like this...including 96

Some of the primaries have been even nastier...anyone remember how Bush basically destroyed McCain in the primaries? I felt sorry for him. Each side thinks they are the ones who are playing fair....I think this is just the fun of politics!

[barack the house]

7. Well it still holds true as each one is progressively more mean but you have to admire Obama for>

his best efforts to make the debate more mature and responsible.

[MissWaverly]

8. each presidential campaign has gotten worse since Bush 1

"In the summer of 1998, after the Democrats had concluded their convention in Atlanta, George H.W. Bush was 17 points
behind Michael Dukakis in the national polls."

paraphrasing the book, Bush put together a special group to insure that he would carry Texas, where he was severely
criticized as being a carpetbagger (this is what I inserted because it's too long to quote directly)

Lee Atwater, the chief strategist and James Baker, Bush's best friend who oversaw the campaign at the national campaign headquarters in Washington.

"Here is how you are going to do this," Atwater said on the call. "Whatever you want you get."

"I am going to need an unlimited budget and no oversight." Weaver said, "We got to do things here that do not have to be run through the national campaign."

Baker and Atwater agreed. In the end, Victory '88 had a 15 million budget-and no oversight from Washington.

Pages 44 and 45, Rise and Fall of Karl Rove by Paul Alexander, Modern Times Press, NY, NY 2008