Dirty tricks and politics as usual

I have been paying a small amount of attention to the Republican nomination race. Not a lot of attention, just around the edges. I read a little bit here, listen a little bit there, watch some another place. I see some things going on that I've seen before, in other campaign periods. Dirty tricks. A fine tradition in politics all over the world. Smear your opponent(s), doesn't matter if true or false as long as it is something that will offend voters.

For my generation, Nixon epitomized the phenomenon. Especially in the 1972 election. Nixon's Committee to Re-Elect the President (producing an acronym pronounced "creep", I kid you not) had a squad of people actively engaged in finding ways to destroy potential rivals and then implementing them. It didn't start after the primaries were over and the nominees were determined. It started with the primaries and played a part in who would be the nominees. Of course, the only primaries that mattered were the Democratic ones since Nixon was not going to be challenged by anyone in his own party.

In the end, Nixon faced George McGovern. McGovern was a staunch opponent of the Vietnam War. But he was also extremely liberal. Nixon was also opposed to the war and was supposedly trying to complete his plan (never explained) to end the war that he ran on in 1968. A lot of people died for that plan. A lot more were hurt very badly. As was the country.

What we are seeing today is very similar. We have an unpopular war (two, actually), we have protesters in the streets, we have a president who wants to be re-elected, and we have a primary race where candidates are being slandered; where the truth of the allegations are second to the fact that they exist.

History repeating itself?

Read Ann Coulter's column...

Addendum: The Scandal No One's Talking About