Dirty Politics Old School Style: How To Win Elections and Influence People

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If you think political campaigns have gotten nasty in YOUR lifetime….check out what these two founding fathers had to say about each other when THEY found themselves gunning for the same oval office seat. 

Thomas Jefferson, when running against lifelong pal John Adams for the Presidential palace called him a "hideous hermaphroditical character…." - and to be honest with you, other than a magazine I think I looked at when I was 8, I'm not even 100% sure I know how what a hermaphrodite is.  ( although I don't think it was a compliment)

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Adams called Jefferson some nasty names too, although he kept it above the belt.  ( no pun intended..:-)  Not to be undone (keeping with our below the belt theme) Jefferson was accused of being  "the son of a half -breed indian squaw, sired by a Virginia mulatto father." 

Which I think, although I'm not sure, all together, is something of the equivilant of "Yo momma."

This is great stuff - and FAR worse than some of the blog comments I've had to delete over the last few days….and a reminder, yet again, that we are TRULY a friendly breed.  The full story is below.  ( and worth reading if you are a political junkie like me..:-)

Negative campaigning in America was sired by two lifelong friends, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Back in 1776, the dynamic duo combined powers to help claim America's independence, and they had nothing but love and respect for one another. But by 1800, party politics had so distanced the pair that, for the first and last time in U.S. history, a president found himself running against his vice president.Despite their bruising campaign, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams became friends again.Despite their bruising campaign, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams became friends again.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. See 8 great campaign slogans »Even Martha Washington succumbed to the propaganda, telling a clergyman that Jefferson was "one of the most detestable of mankind."

Founding Fathers' dirty campaign - CNN.com

Tags: presidentialrace, musings

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