Richard Shenkman the author of 'Presidential Ambition: How the Presidents Gained Power, Kept Power and Got Things Done' stated at the time of the 2004 election....

"Any time you've got a divided country, that divisiveness just gets the blood going of these very competitive people who are in the business of getting their candidate elected, and then you tend to have more ugly politicking and smear campaigning."

"We have a tradition of ugly politics in America but this campaign is much more intense because of the Internet, 24-hour cable news and talk radio. There are so many more ways to communicate smears. It's all smear all the time."

As I've said on another thread I'm merely an 'outsider' lookin in in some disillusionment.