Most despicable personal attack during an election

[Indy Texas]

What is the most over-the-line, below-the-belt stunt a politician has pulled against their opponent?

I'd consider it a toss-up between George W. Bush telling racist South Carolina voters that John McCain's adopted Indian daughter was a mulatto love-child (2000), and Saxby Chambliss implying that Max Cleland, a decorated double amputee Vietnam vet, was basically a Muslim terrorist sleeper agent (2002).

[Illuminati Blood Drinker]

Chambliss vs. Cleland, 2002.

This is the correct answer, everyone go home.

[NewYorkExpress]

Chambliss vs. Cleland, 2002.

This is the correct answer, everyone go home.

Elizabeth Dole accusing Kay Hagan of being a "Godless American" seems to be one that hits me for some reason.

[ElectionsGuy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8wYJv0WmHI

Though this is more funny than despicable.

[Miles]

I think Chambliss' attack was the worst, but Dole's Godless ad is up there.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

* JQA claiming that Andrew Jackson's wife was still married, an attack so brutal it managed to kill her of stress. That's pretty low Adams, that's how super villains are created. (An explanation for Jackson's presidency maybe?). (The Adams campaign was pretty awful in 1828)

* The Mail claiming Ed Miliband can't be Prime Minister, because his dad was a UK-hating commie.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

A top contender for recent despicable ads has got to be Obama's Spanish language ad that quoted from Rush Limbaugh on NAFTA out of context to somehow tie McCain by association (!) to supposed anti-Mexican remarks.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2008/sep/19/barack-obama/limbaughs-not-a-mccain-spokesman/
http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/2008/dos-caras

[dead0man]

The LBJ ad telling us we're all going to die in a nuclear war if we vote for Goldwater was about as low class as one can get.

[Warren 4 Secretary of Everything]

A top contender for recent despicable ads has got to be Obama's Spanish language ad that quoted from Rush Limbaugh on NAFTA out of context to somehow tie McCain by association (!) to supposed anti-Mexican remarks.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2008/sep/19/barack-obama/limbaughs-not-a-mccain-spokesman/
http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/2008/dos-caras

...
Don't think that counts as a personal attack, and even so, is nowhere near as bad as the above mentioned ones.

[JerryArkansas]

I don't have just one, but the one's on the top of my list have to be "Hands" by Jesse Helms, The Playgirl ad against Harold Ford in TN in 2006, and like everyone else, Chamblis in 2002

[Maistre]

The LBJ ad telling us we're all going to die in a nuclear war if we vote for Goldwater was about as low class as one can get.

It has to be this one.

[dead0man]

I'm kind of shocked the LBJ apologists haven't tried to argue against it yet.  Probably the types that like to sleep in though...

[H. Ross Peron]

Metzenbaum's claim that John Glenn never had a real job probably ranks pretty high.

[All Along The Watchtower]

Willie Horton

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Metzenbaum's claim that John Glenn never had a real job probably ranks pretty high.

That was the worst one IMO.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

[King]

The LBJ ad telling us we're all going to die in a nuclear war if we vote for Goldwater was about as low class as one can get.

Except for 1976, every Presidential campaign from 1952-1984 accused the other of leading us into a nuclear holocaust and/or Soviet conquer. Goldwater ran ads about how our children would be communists if LBJ did not act properly.

LBJ just had the best television campaign for it.

[Indy Texas]

Metzenbaum's claim that John Glenn never had a real job probably ranks pretty high.

A lot of politicians have gone that route, usually when the target is a career politician/government employee.

In 2010, Bill White sounded almost Romney-esque when he said Rick Perry had never had a real job and that his lack of private sector experience disqualified him from public office (which already sounds illogical on its face, but was made worse by the fact that Perry's non-government jobs were in the unimpeachable fields of military service and working on the family farm).

[moderatevoter]

Yeah, the "real job" line isn't uncommon. John Foust made a similar comment about Barbara Comstock in VA-10.

[Clarko95 📚💰📈]

The LBJ ad telling us we're all going to die in a nuclear war if we vote for Goldwater was about as low class as one can get.

Except for 1976, every Presidential campaign from 1952-1984 accused the other of leading us into a nuclear holocaust and/or Soviet conquer. Goldwater ran ads about how our children would be communists if LBJ did not act properly.

LBJ just had the best television campaign for it.

Well, wouldn't that be kind of policy related instead of a personal attack? I can see how it's distasteful and low, but I'm not sure it belongs in the "personal" attack category.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

A top contender for recent despicable ads has got to be Obama's Spanish language ad that quoted from Rush Limbaugh on NAFTA out of context to somehow tie McCain by association (!) to supposed anti-Mexican remarks.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2008/sep/19/barack-obama/limbaughs-not-a-mccain-spokesman/
http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/2008/dos-caras

...
Don't think that counts as a personal attack, and even so, is nowhere near as bad as the above mentioned ones.

Of course it's a personal attack. They weren't saying "John McCain's a nice guy but he has some bad ideas."

[Miles]

Right on cue for this thread, we get a pretty nasty ad from Wendy Davis.

[Indy Texas]

Right on cue for this thread, we get a pretty nasty ad from Wendy Davis.

I don't see what's so wrong with pointing out that Greg Abbott has a virulently anti-plaintiff, anti-victim record from his SCTX days and if he'd been injured today in Texas, he wouldn't have been able to get the generous payout he did. If that's not hypocrisy, what is?

[New_Conservative]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8wYJv0WmHI

Though this is more funny than despicable.

That was strange.

Well, this is really new, but it takes the cake for me. The empty wheelchair is really poor taste.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lush7TZB860

[Deus Naturae]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8wYJv0WmHI

Though this is more funny than despicable.

That was strange.

Well, this is really new, but it takes the cake for me. The empty wheelchair is really poor taste.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lush7TZB860

Oh please. Showing a wheelchair constitutes the most despicable political ad ever? Give me a break.