"a pot-bellied mutton-headed cucumber"

Comrades,

You reckon the recent Presidential election campaign was the weirdest, dirtiest, most vitriolic in US history?
Wrong.
Do rather like a few of the many campaign bon mot quoted in last week's edition of Time magazine:


1992: George W.H.Bush on Bill Clinton & Al Gore
"my dog, Millie, knows more about foreign policy than those two bozo's".

1864: Democrat George McClellan on Republican Abraham Lincoln.
"nothing more than a well meaning baboon".

1848: The Whigs' standard description of Democrat candidate Lewis Cass:
"a pot-bellied mutton-headed cucumber".

1844: Democrat campaign leaftlet whingeing about the Whig candidate, Henry Clay:
"he spends his days at the gambling table and his nights in a brothel".

...and this absolute corker from 1828...incumbent Federalist President John Adams on Democrat candidate Andrew Jackson.
"a cockfighter, drunkard, thief, liar, and the husband of a very fat wife".

Jackson won the election in a landslide.

They had a way with words, back in the day.

(originally published 21/11/16)