Maybe the passage of time has dulled my memory, but it seems like the last clean presidential election was in 1976, Carter versus Ford, two decent men who largely stuck to their differences on the issues of the day.
Ugly campaigns didn't start with Bush vs Dukakis in 1988, but that's the first one I watched closely enough to notice. Books have been written about the late Lee Atwater, who was a consultant to 41 and whose name is now synonymous with nasty politics. In 1988, Limbaugh, the stain in America's underwear, was starting to broadcast nationally and the conservative media noise machine was on the horizon.
The pattern's familiar by now: The Republicans constantly dump sewage on the Democrats, who usually won't defend themselves or try to dump much retaliatory sewage. By the time the voting takes place, I'm sick of the Republicans because of their tactics and sick of the Democrats because of their weakness. It's hard not to get bored with the whole mess.
The campaign underway features two candidates who profess a desire to change the face of American politics. Top Gun, the victim of nasty politics in 2000, should have a vested interest in staying on the high road. We'll see. As for Obama, it's not even Labor Day, and he's already been called a radical, anti-American, unpatriotic Muslim socialist-elitist with Marxist tendencies. It remains to be seen whether he'll toss a few grenades of his own.
PS: Until yesterday, I didn't realize how important Tim Russert was in American society. Excuse me for failing to notice.
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