Monday, February 18, 2008

Nutmeg

In the spirit of same-day holiday bashing as posted here on Valentine's Day, not to mention Thanksgivings past, I present some historical presidential campaign remarks from Joseph Cummins' book, Anything for a Vote: Dirty Tricks, Cheap Shots, and October Surprises in U.S. Presidential Campaigns, lifted from Daily Kos:

"Jefferson is a mean-spirited, low-lived fellow, the son of a half-breed Indian squaw, sired by a Virginia Mulatto father." (Federalist pamphlet)

"A base wretch...who is for WAR!" (DeWitt Clinton supporters on James Madison)

"Martin Van Buren is laced up in corsets, such as women in town wear, and if possible tighter than the best of them. It would be difficult to say from his personal appearance, whether he was a man or a woman, but for his large red and gray whiskers." (Davy Crockett)

"Miss Nancy" (Andrew Jackson on James Buchanan)

"He is a horrid-looking wretch. Sooty and scoundrelly in aspect, a cross between the nutmeg dealer, the horse-swapper, and the nightman." (The Charleston Mercury on Abraham Lincoln)

"Tweedledum and Tweedledee" (Woodrow Wilson on Teddy Roosevelt and William Howard Taft)

"If you vote for Nixon, you might go to hell." (Harry Truman)

Of course, all this brings up the question, what's so bad about nutmeg?

1 comment:

willyh said...

Nutmeg dealers from Connecticut (the Nutmeg State) were notorious for spiking their wares with wooden nutmeg nuts.