When did politics jump the shark?

[Skip Intro]

[Barack_America]

1. When "poli" met "tics".

Seriously, think about those words together.

[mitchum]

2. Eisenhower versus Stevenson

[GrizzlyMan]

3. Honestly? I gotta say at about noon today. Craziest fuckin thing I've ever seen n/t

[Phredicles]

4. My thought is the Ollie North fiasco at the Iran/Contra hearings,

but maybe it's a function of the age you are. I was 22 at the time and couldn't believe the quality and quantity of bullshit being swallowed.

[Skip Intro]

7. I remeber those, was old enough to care, but to self-absorbed.

btw, your sig pic is now my desktop background.
;)

[Phredicles]

10. I just randomly found it via google. I don't even remember where I

stole, I mean liberated :evilgrin:, it from. But damn is it funny.

[Gabi Hayes]

5. 1800 election

http://www.amazon.com/Magnificent-Catastrophe-Tumultuous-Election-Presidential/dp/0743293169

In this absorbing, brisk account, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Larson (Summer of the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion) recreates the dramatic presidential race of 1800, which, Larson says, stamped American democracy with its distinctive partisan character as Republicans and Federalists battled for the presidency. Larson explains how a race between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson actually ended in a tie between Jefferson and his running mate, Aaron Burr. (The tie was resolved by Congress.)

The bitter infighting and the sophisticated political jockeying of 1800 spelled the end of any idea that America would be governed by enlightened consensus, resulting instead in the two-party system we know today. Readers will find many similarities between the intense electioneering of Adams and Jefferson, and the heated political races of today. For instance, Larson delineates debates about security and the Alien and Sedition Acts, the complex calculus of the Electoral College and the ad hominem remarks of commentators. Larson's volume will join Susan Dunn's Jefferson's Second Revolution as an invaluable study of a crucial chapter in the lives of the founding fathers—and of the nation

[sandnsea]

6. When the media pretend these guys were regular citizens

[Uncle Joe]

16. Seconded and....

[Uncle Joe]

17. Thirded.

[AZBlue]

8. When McCain became an real presidential candidate.

Who woulda thought??

[lutherj]

9. When Caligula appointed his horse to the Senate. n/t

[TwilightGardener]

11. Lee Atwater.

[Zenmaster]

12. Honestly? Ronald Reagan. That's when it really stopped being about any issues

[yurbud]

13. 1990 when Papa Bush shifted Gulf War justifcation from protecting OIL to defeating new Hitler

I just watched Michael Klare's doc BLOOD & OIL and he shows the shift. The public did not support going to war to make sure Saddam didn't control too much oil, so the rationale for war changed.

Since then our public discourse has gotten stupider and stupider.

What's striking is that in the video, it shows every president including Reagan talking honestly about oil being our strategic interest in the Gulf--and no terrorist boogey men in sight.

Even more striking than politicians talking honestly about this was seeing REPORTERS actually ask the president questions about the oil motive for actions in the Gulf and getting honest answers.

[No Elephants]

14. Nixon, with Unca Pat Buchanan as speechwriter.

[SoxFan]

15. 1988

Donna Rice.

"Go ahead and follow me".

Dan Quayle.

Bush at the flag factory.

Dukakis in the tank.

[rucky]

18. Before Fonzie did. n/t

[RagAss]

19. When Pilate washed his hands......

I'm just sayin'