If we have to mention the US election (and I think we'd all be better off not doing so in any hope of seriousness), it is worth recalling what has gone before:

In 1800, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were running against each other. The campaign was full of even more personal smears and slurs than we see in recent times. Adams was described as: "a hideous hermaphrodital character, which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman.” In return, Jefferson was described as "a mean-spirited, low-lived fellow, the son of a half-breed Indian squaw, sired by a Virginia mulatto father.”

Ah, the great nobility of campaigning to run your country.