<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> Grover Cleveland had seduced a widow; James G. Blaine had peddled influence lied about it. In 1884, voters had to choose between two tarnished champions</span> </span></p>
<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> United States policy, Henry Wallace said in his spirited challenge to Truman and Dewey in 1948, should be</span> </span></p>
<p>A former British ambassador and noted historian explains why "hard-headed self-possessed Americans go so wild with excitement at election times"</p>
<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> Presidential candidates stayed above the battle until William Jennings Bryan stumped the nation in 1896; they’ve been in the thick of it ever since</span> </span></p>
<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> A noted historian argues that television, a relative newcomer, has nearly destroyed old—and valuable—political traditions</span> </span></p>
<p><span class="deck"><span class="typestyle">The ground rules have changed drastically since 1789. Abigail Adams, stifled in her time, would have loved being First Lady today.</span> </span></p>
<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> Here is how political cartoonists have sized up the candidates over a tumultuous half-century.</span> </span></p>
<p><span class="deck">It took place in 1948, and it was orchestrated, with difficulty, by the program director of a faltering Portland, Oregon radio station. He persuaded two Republican candidates to argue formally about an actual issue, with no moderator.</span></p>
<p><span class="deck">To keep Upton Sinclair from becoming governor of California in 1934, his opponents invented a whole new kind of campaign.</span></p>
<p><span class="deck">Every presidential election is exciting when it happens. Then, the passing of time usually makes the outcome seem less than crucial. But, after more than a century and a quarter, the election of 1860 retains its terrible urgency.</span></p>
<p><span class="deck">A year ago, we were in the midst of a presidential campaign most memorable for charges by both sides that the opponent was not hard enough, tough enough, masculine enough. That he was, in fact, a sissy. Both sides also admitted that this sort of rhetoric was deplorable. But it’s been going on since the beginning of the republic.</span></p>
<p>Most of our presidents have been avid athletes, even Taft. Could a party safely nominate an overweight and unabashed couch potato who scorned exercise?</p>
<p><span class="deck">The two-party system, undreamt of by the founders of the republic, has been one of its basic shaping forces ever since their time.</span></p>
<p><span class="deck">When the two parties gather to select their candidates, the proceedings will be empty glitz, with none of the import of old-time conventions. Or will they?</span></p>
<p><span class="deck">When John Adams was elected president, and Thomas Jefferson as vice president, each came to see the other as a traitor. Out of their enmity grew our modern political system.</span></p>
<p><span class="deck">It was never designed to actually elect a president, it’s awkward, cumbersome, and confusing, and almost no one likes it. Americans have been trying to get rid of it for more than two centuries. Yet it’s still here. Now, we are seeing renewed efforts to reform or eliminate the Electoral College. Will they succeed? Don’t bet on it. </span></p>
<p><span class="deck">In their surprisingly short history, presidential debates have never lived up to our expectations. Yet they’ve always proved invaluable.</span></p>
