200-plus years of campaign dirty tricks

[gabosaurus]

I have been reading an extremely entertaining book entitled Anything For A Vote.
The author has done extensive research on every U.S. presidential campaign since the first one, noted all the candidates and their running mates and chronicled how dirty (or boring) each one was. It is incredibly fascinating.
There is no party loyalty. Every candidate is skewered for their wrongdoings. If you are fascinating by campaign politics, you will love this one.

[midcan5]

Two stand out in my mind as having real effect, the swift boat attacks on Kerry and the republican attacks on one of their own, John McCain in South Carolina.

[Kathianne]

I have been reading an extremely entertaining book entitled Anything For A Vote.
The author has done extensive research on every U.S. presidential campaign since the first one, noted all the candidates and their running mates and chronicled how dirty (or boring) each one was. It is incredibly fascinating.
There is no party loyalty. Every candidate is skewered for their wrongdoings. If you are fascinating by campaign politics, you will love this one.

No doubt that the 'dirty tricks' used to be worse. The one thing television has done is made people instantly aware of what is going on, thus cannot be spun as easily as in the past by the press.