Quote:This post had me trying to remember if it's ever been different. 1796/1800 Jefferson vs. Adams?

 

Well, that may be a case where there were two good candidates, but the most interesting aspect about that campaign to me is that Jefferson vs Adams was one of the most down and dirty mudslinging campaigns in history. 

 

http://mentalfloss.com/article/12487/ada...aigning-us

 

"Things got ugly fast. Jefferson's camp accused President Adams of having a "hideous hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman." In return, Adams' men called Vice President Jefferson "a mean-spirited, low-lived fellow, the son of a half-breed Indian squaw, sired by a Virginia mulatto father." As the slurs piled on, Adams was labeled a fool, a hypocrite, a criminal, and a tyrant, while Jefferson was branded a weakling, an atheist, a libertine, and a coward. Even Martha Washington succumbed to the propaganda, telling a clergyman that Jefferson was "one of the most detestable of mankind.""

 

And, of course, things went downhill from there...

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