The Attack Ads of 1800

[liberalpragmatist]

Reason (yes, a libertarian mag) has a nice video that takes actual attacks between Jefferson and Adams and puts them in the form of political campaign ads. The results are quite funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Y_zTN4BXvYI#!

[pa28]

1. They played hardball.

John Adams "is a hideous hermphroditical character with neither the force and firmness of a man or the gentleness and sensibility of a woman".

Ouch. Shakespeare would have a hard time coming up with a more poetic insult.

[Adsos Letter]

2. Ah, the first real smear campaign: 1800. There are several good works on this; however,...

the one I most thoroughly enjoyed was Larson's A Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800, America's First Presidential Campaign