Mary Schmidt Marketing Troubleshooter

It’s Friday and I’m in the mood to write a bit about perspective. Sooo…

We sometimes forget that our Founding Fathers and early presidents were human. Having just survived the horrible, low-down, negative election of 2008, I recall one of the low-downest in history, the election of 1828 - John Quincy Adams (6th president, incumbent) versus Andrew Jackson. Jackson claimed Adams, when ambassador to Russia, had pimped young American virgins for the csar of Russia (totally not true.) Adams’ campaign was quick to call Jackson’s wife a whore (seems the backwoods, frontier divorce may not have been final when Jackson married her.)

In 1827 supporters in both the Adams and Jackson camps began concerted efforts to undermine the character of the opponent. Even though the two candidates had strong differences on substantial issues, the resulting campaign turned out to be based on personalities and tactics which were outrageously underhanded.

Hmmm…imagine if they had YouTube back then…

Happy Friday!

P.S. Weekend reading recommendation: The American President (Kunhardt). Excellent essays on every president up to Bill Clinton, including one of the most ruthless and ambitious politicians, Abraham Lincoln (He was human before he was marble…)