Most despicable personal attack during an election

[tpfkaw]

This one probably takes the cake for recent elections in MA.

[New_Conservative]

This one probably takes the cake for recent elections in MA.

Good call.

[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

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

That's not what I'm saying, the whole mantra of the ad was really poor taste.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Guys these are supposed to be personal attacks. Not "I don't like how Politician X attacked Politican Y's policies or record".

[Simfan34]

The Playgirl ad against Harold Ford in TN in 2006

I always liked that one.

[Cory]

That's not what I'm saying, the whole mantra of the ad was really poor taste.

No it wasn't. Abbot sued a landowner for 10 million dollars because a random tree fell on him while he was jogging. That's a gouge if there ever was one and then he had the gall to counter other people's much more reasonable claims.

He deserves to have his hypocrisy exposed.

[GMantis]

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...

I'm not a LBJ apologist and I'm certainly prepared to argue against this. Considering Goldwater's political positions and some of his very controversial statements, alleging that he was more likely to start a nuclear war was certainly not a personal attack, nor was it especially unfair in the general context of the kind of ads that were often made in this period on this topic. Of course, the ad was unduly alarmist, but it can hardly be compared with the other ads cited here, which are  baseless personal attacks

[nolesfan2011]

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...

Goldwater did flirt with wanting to use nukes in a brazen way, he was an unhinged extremist who could have led the nation into nuclear war, which LBJ avoided.

[nolesfan2011]

I thought Davis's vacuum cleaner ad was even more despicable and awful that aside.

Historical context would be the Andrew Jackson/John Q Adams race, modern context the Cleland one most certainly