The contest for White House touches real low

Indian election campaigns are often criticised for catering to the lowest common denominator. Politicians routinely exploit caste and communal faultlines; they use crass language for shock value; sexist comments are the norm; and even personal attacks on rivals are commonplace. Each time a controversy erupts here, some commentators point towards election campaigns in the West that, they argue, adhere to a more civilised, if not sophisticated, standard. This comparison remains debatable, especially if the ongoing US presidential campaign is anything to go by. Republican candidate Donald Trump has repeatedly shocked people in the US and around the world with his absurd remarks, but his recent attack on his rival's wife was a new low even by his own standards. To be fair, it was Ted Cruz, the other major Republican candidate, who started the controversy: last month, a group campaigning for Cruz put out an advertisement that used a GQ magazine photograph of Trump's wife Melania lying naked and handcuffed to a briefcase. This prompted the real estate mogul to retaliate with an unflattering photo of Cruz's wife Heidi alongside a glamorous shot of Melania, begging the people to judge for themselves.

Yet, contrary to public perception, such low blows are not uncommon in US presidential elections. They go back to the country's founding fathers. For example, in the election of 1800, where President John Adams was challenged by Vice President Thomas Jefferson, an influential supporter of the incumbent, a man no less than the president of Yale University, publically suggested that if Jefferson were to become President, “we would see our wives and daughters the victims of legal prostitution”. The Jefferson campaign responded through an influential journalist of the time, who wrote that the President was a “repulsive pedant” who “possessed a hideous hermaphroditical character”. Similarly, in 1828, in the race between President John Adams and war hero Andrew Jackson, the latter was accused of adultery and his wife of bigamy, as it wasn't clear if she had been properly divorced from her first husband before marrying the presidential candidate. In response, the Jackson campaign accused President Adams of pimping out an American girl to the Russian Czar during his tenure as the US Ambassador to Russia. This list can go on, but the point is that when a high-stakes election is to be won, there is hardly a politician anywhere in the world who hasn't got his hands dirty.

That said, what is somewhat odd about this US presidential election is that even at this late stage, when front-runners in both camps should be looking at running mates and making serious policy pronouncements, they are taking major electoral hits  as was evident in the Wisconsin primary, where both Trump and the front-runner from the Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton, lost by 13 points each. Now, it's true that Wisconsin is not as significant as the big swing States of Ohio or Florida, but the result still indicates that neither of the top candidates has the whole-hearted support of even core vote-banks. While Clinton is seen as too much of an establishment candidate, Trump is considered not ‘presidential' enough. Both will face their next big test in New York on April 19.