They may be right, given that no one can now remember the campaigns of 1824 and 1828, when the silk-stocking elite reacted with similar horror at the ascent of that original favorite of the unwashed yokels, the "illiterate baboon" (and champion of the Battle of New Orleans), Andrew Jackson.

The real issues at the time were tariffs and the monopoly Bank of the United States. But the campaigns were instead waged in the anti-Jackson media by dredging up scandals concerning when Jackson's wife Rachel actually divorced her first husband, while painting Old Hickory as a tyrant whose election would spell the death of the republic. (Sound familiar?)

It's important to realize that today's mainstream media have purposely sought to MAKE this a campaign about personalities rather than issues.