carlsonjok
Posts: 3326
Joined: May 2006
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| Quote (Wesley R. Elsberry @ Oct. 08 2008,09:16) | | Of course, I haven't read detailed accounts of the campaigns of some of our early presidents, so maybe the only president who didn't have to act as a politician to get the job might have been Washington. |
If memory serves, Washington was the glue that held the Union together during the immediate post-Constitution era, so was basically a shoe-in for both the elections of 1789 and 1792.
The election of 1800 between incumbent John Adams and eventual winner Thomas Jefferson probably sets the standard for outright nastiness. None of the veiled, wink-wink broadsides we see today for them.
Added in edit: Although, interestingly, alot of the bile was thrown not by the candidates, but by pamphleteers and partisan newspapers. They could be considered the colonial equivalent of today's 527 organizations.
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It's natural to be curious about our world, but the scientific method is just one theory about how to best understand it. We live in a democracy, which means we should treat every theory equally. - Steven Colbert, I Am America (and So Can You!)
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