Bob Schieffer on our unsavory presidential campaign
Is this year’s presidential campaign the worst ever? The polling says “yes” -- and our Bob Schieffer agrees:
My mother always said, “Go vote: It makes you feel big and strong.” But when I cast my absentee ballot this year, I didn’t feel big or strong; I felt anxious and worried.
It’s not enough to say this was the worst campaign of my lifetime. This will be one of those examples we’ll use to rate future campaigns, the way we judge disasters and scandals, as in “the worst scandal since Watergate,” or “the worst Hurricane since Katrina.”
Our campaigns are more than just the process where we select candidates. They should also enlighten us, help us to understand problems, and debate solutions.
This time there was none of that. This campaign left an unsavory stain on everyone and everything it touched, including the process itself.
Political discourse ranged from allegations of old-fashioned corruption and character, to depths never before plumbed -- vulgar and rude discussions of subjects seldom mentioned in public.
The recurring question was, “Could it get worse?”
And it always did.
- Voters turn off TVs and phones amid barrage of campaign ads (“CBS This Morning”)
- Trump’s lewd remarks spark national conversation on sexual assault (“CBS Evening News”)
- Trump’s “grab ‘em by the p****” remark prompts outpouring of women’s sexual assault stories
- Body-shaming insults in 2016 campaign worry parents
- Hillary Clinton: Half of Donald Trump supporters in “basket of deplorables”
- Clinton calls out Trump’s “steady stream of bigotry” (“CBS This Morning”)
- Both Trump and Clinton seen as risky choices: CBS/NYT poll
Our campaigns have become a multi-billion dollar industry and have made millionaires of the professional class that has grown up around them, yet the system coughed up two candidates this year that most Americans neither like nor trust.
Which raises the question: Has the whole process become so money-driven, so odious, that the most qualified people want no part of it?
After what we’ve been through this time, isn’t that something we need to talk about before next time?
