HardJedi
08-24-04, 03:52 PM
With Liberty and Slander for All
>
> With just about ten weeks until the Presidential vote, smear merchants on
> both sides continue to run wild. The Internet is one big Defamation.com;
> John Kerry is a traitor, George W. Bush is a deserter. And there's big
> money behind the purveyors of this vile brew.
>
> But this is nothing new for America. What's changed is the machinery that
> delivers the slander. All throughout our history character assassins have
> surfaced every four years to attack anyone daring enough to run for the
> highest office in the land. The freedom of screech extends all the way
back
> to 1796.
>
> In that election, campaign supporters of John Adams really went after his
> opponent Thomas Jefferson, calling him, among other things, an atheist,
> anarchist, demagogue, coward, trickster and a mountebank.
>
> A mountebank is a guy who sells phony medicine, in case you're like me and
> didn't know.
>
> Jefferson's crowd immediately struck back by labeling Adams: egotistical,
> erratic, eccentric and jealous-natured.
>
> Historian Paul Boller describes all this in his lively book "Campaigns"
> (Oxford Press). Boller chronicles each Presidential contest, and it's
clear
> that we have learned little over the years. The mud stays eerily similar
> throughout the ages.
>
> In 1828, for example, backers of John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson were
> totally out of control. Jackson won the vote despite being accused of
> adultery, gambling, cock fighting, bigamy, slave trading, drunkenness,
> theft, lying, and murder. I guess the voters figured anyone with that much
> energy deserved the top job.
>
> But Jackson's people didn't silently stand by. No way. They hammered Adams
> hard, accusing him of having premarital relations with his wife and
> traveling on a Sunday. It doesn't get lower than that.
>
> The slime machine behind James Polk went to work in 1844, announcing that
> his opponent, Henry Clay, had systemically violated every one of The Ten
> Commandments.
>
> Clay's mudslingers immediately replied calling Polk "unimaginative." Polk
> won the election carrying much of the non-creative vote.
>
> U.S. Grant was, perhaps, the most vilified Presidential candidate in
> history. Running against Horace Greeley in 1872, Grant was called a crook,
> an ignoramus, a drunk, a swindler, and an "utterly depraved horse jockey."
>
> It's entirely possible that last attack caused much sympathy for Grant who
> carried 31 of 37 states. A depraved horse jockey indeed!
>
> In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt was actually shot in the chest while
> campaigning in Milwaukee. He got up, finished his speech, and then went to
> the hospital. Woodrow Wilson won the election, but let's give the Rough
> Rider some credit here.
>
> During the campaign of 1928, hysteria reigned because Al Smith was a Roman
> Catholic. Some supporters of his opponent Herbert Hoover got this message
> out: If elected, Smith would annul all Protestant marriages and extend the
> newly completed Holland Tunnel in New York City all the way to Rome! Talk
> about a big dig.
>
> Compared to the above, calling Bill Clinton a "pot smoking, draft dodger,"
> or labeling John Kerry a "flip-flopper" doesn't even rate. President
Bush's
> intelligence is being challenged but nowhere have I seen him accused of
> fathering an out-of-wedlock child as was Grover Cleveland (who actually
> did). So while we have been assaulted by Swift Boats and taunted by the
> likes of Michael Moore, the slime peddlers are not nearly as creative as
> they used to be.
>
> I just pray Bush and Kerry don't travel on Sunday.
>
> By: Bill O'Reilly for BillOReilly.com
>
> With just about ten weeks until the Presidential vote, smear merchants on
> both sides continue to run wild. The Internet is one big Defamation.com;
> John Kerry is a traitor, George W. Bush is a deserter. And there's big
> money behind the purveyors of this vile brew.
>
> But this is nothing new for America. What's changed is the machinery that
> delivers the slander. All throughout our history character assassins have
> surfaced every four years to attack anyone daring enough to run for the
> highest office in the land. The freedom of screech extends all the way
back
> to 1796.
>
> In that election, campaign supporters of John Adams really went after his
> opponent Thomas Jefferson, calling him, among other things, an atheist,
> anarchist, demagogue, coward, trickster and a mountebank.
>
> A mountebank is a guy who sells phony medicine, in case you're like me and
> didn't know.
>
> Jefferson's crowd immediately struck back by labeling Adams: egotistical,
> erratic, eccentric and jealous-natured.
>
> Historian Paul Boller describes all this in his lively book "Campaigns"
> (Oxford Press). Boller chronicles each Presidential contest, and it's
clear
> that we have learned little over the years. The mud stays eerily similar
> throughout the ages.
>
> In 1828, for example, backers of John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson were
> totally out of control. Jackson won the vote despite being accused of
> adultery, gambling, cock fighting, bigamy, slave trading, drunkenness,
> theft, lying, and murder. I guess the voters figured anyone with that much
> energy deserved the top job.
>
> But Jackson's people didn't silently stand by. No way. They hammered Adams
> hard, accusing him of having premarital relations with his wife and
> traveling on a Sunday. It doesn't get lower than that.
>
> The slime machine behind James Polk went to work in 1844, announcing that
> his opponent, Henry Clay, had systemically violated every one of The Ten
> Commandments.
>
> Clay's mudslingers immediately replied calling Polk "unimaginative." Polk
> won the election carrying much of the non-creative vote.
>
> U.S. Grant was, perhaps, the most vilified Presidential candidate in
> history. Running against Horace Greeley in 1872, Grant was called a crook,
> an ignoramus, a drunk, a swindler, and an "utterly depraved horse jockey."
>
> It's entirely possible that last attack caused much sympathy for Grant who
> carried 31 of 37 states. A depraved horse jockey indeed!
>
> In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt was actually shot in the chest while
> campaigning in Milwaukee. He got up, finished his speech, and then went to
> the hospital. Woodrow Wilson won the election, but let's give the Rough
> Rider some credit here.
>
> During the campaign of 1928, hysteria reigned because Al Smith was a Roman
> Catholic. Some supporters of his opponent Herbert Hoover got this message
> out: If elected, Smith would annul all Protestant marriages and extend the
> newly completed Holland Tunnel in New York City all the way to Rome! Talk
> about a big dig.
>
> Compared to the above, calling Bill Clinton a "pot smoking, draft dodger,"
> or labeling John Kerry a "flip-flopper" doesn't even rate. President
Bush's
> intelligence is being challenged but nowhere have I seen him accused of
> fathering an out-of-wedlock child as was Grover Cleveland (who actually
> did). So while we have been assaulted by Swift Boats and taunted by the
> likes of Michael Moore, the slime peddlers are not nearly as creative as
> they used to be.
>
> I just pray Bush and Kerry don't travel on Sunday.
>
> By: Bill O'Reilly for BillOReilly.com