1828/2008

Despite the fondest wishes of all those who would love a Presidental campaign that was dignified and based on a substantive delving into the issues, it seems we are fairly doomed to something less. Perhaps most distressing is that the good old days in which such campaigns existed, never existed.

I think of the campaign of 1828 between the Boston Unitarian John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. Probably the nastiest campaign ever waged, newspaper supporters of both candidates mercilessly tore apart the other with scandals real or imagined. Adams became so depressed that he suspended writing in his journal-something he rarely dd.

A line from a campaign song: The choice, it said, was "Between J.Q. Adams who can write/and Andy Jackson who can fight."

Adams was vilified for his heretical religion and called dangerous and un-American, while Jackson was blasted for his marital and moral past and his terrible and erratic temper.

On and on it goes...