Some say this quadrennial presidential campaign is disappointing, focusing too much on negative personal attacks rather than serious discussions about important issues.

George Friedman, a political scientist and chief executive of the open-source intelligence agency Stratfor, puts things in historical perspective:

Thomas Jefferson’s campaign said of John Adams that he had a “hideous hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman.” Adams’ campaign stated that Jefferson was “a mean-spirited, low-lived fellow, the son of a half-breed Indian squaw sired by a Virginia mulatto father.” And Jefferson and Adams were friends.