And the Pinnochio race was won by....

[questionmark]

It’s hard to believe this nasty and brutish presidential campaign has come to an end.

According to our Pinocchio Tracker, through most of the race President Obama and former governor Mitt Romney were neck and neck for the average number of Pinocchios, averaging about 2 Pinocchios each. But then, in the final months, Romney suddenly pulled ahead (so to speak) with a series of statements and commercials that stretched the limits. Obama’s average also got worse — and was nothing to be proud of.

In the end, Romney finished with an average ranking of 2.4 Pinnochios, compared to 2.11 for Obama. Not counting debates (when we awarded no Pinocchios), we rated 92 statements by Obama and 77 by Romney, as well as more than 200 claims made by surrogates and interest groups, as well as Republican presidential contenders.

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[Ashotep]

Both sides have stretched the truth they always have been and always will. If you think this race is nasty take a look at the presidential race of 1800 between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

[EllJay]

Both sides have stretched the truth they always have been and always will. If you think this race is nasty take a look at the presidential race of 1800 between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

Yeah, that one seemed a bit ugly and vicious.

Jefferson's camp accused President Adams of having a "hideous hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman."

In return, Adams' men called Vice President Jefferson "a mean-spirited, low-lived fellow, the son of a half-breed Indian squaw, sired by a Virginia mulatto father."

As the slurs piled on, Adams was labeled a fool, a hypocrite, a criminal, and a tyrant, while Jefferson was branded a weakling, an atheist, a libertine, and a coward.

Even Martha Washington succumbed to the propaganda, telling a clergyman that Jefferson was "one of the most detestable of mankind." Mental Floss: Jefferson: The sensitive writer type.

http://articles.cnn....on?_s=PM:LIVING

Lee Atwater, the man who taught Karl Rove everything he knows about dirty tricks, was really out there in th 80´s. Planting a fake reporter at a press conference who was told to say: "We understand Turnipseed has had psychotic treatment." as a matter-of-fact statement/rumour so that the campaign opponent Tom Turnipseed would appear insane.

He did the same thing in the 88 Presidental Election for George H.W Bush, were he claimed Michaelt Dukakis had been treated for a mental illness.In the documentary Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story, Robert Novak reveals for the first time that Atwater personally tried to get him to spread these mental health rumours.

He had a slew of other dirty tricks up his sleeve that he made use of during his campaign manager.