In 1828, President John Quincy Adams’s reelection campaign reportedly traded on innuendoes that Rachel Jackson had been imperfectly divorced from her first husband. Since her second husband, Andrew Jackson, once killed a man in a duel for the same insult to his wife’s honor, Adams was perhaps lucky to lose no more than the presidency to Old Hickory.

So, while there are abundant signs that Republicans this year are itching to take the practice to new lows, let’s not forget that attacks on first ladies, actual or putative, go back a long way. And for all of the fear in Democratic circles about the damage these attacks could do to the Obama campaign, there are equally abundant signs that the Republicans have chosen the wrong spouse to trash and bash. Indeed, the proposed demonization of Michelle Obama as some sort of radical, honky-hating Shadow (racial implication intended) Behind the Throne could well backfire.

http://www.tnr.com/toc/story.html?id…a-d99b97442df7

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