After the triumphal glow of a dynamic Democratic National Convention speech by Hillary Clinton reminiscent of such great past oratorical efforts by Alben Barkley, Frank Clements, Eugene McCarthy and Barbara Jordan, it was significant that a trip to Fox News revealed not analysis of a great political stem winder but gloom and doom.

The gloom and doom naturally centered around Democrats with Hillary Clinton playing a role, but certainly not in a unifying stellar speech tradition on behalf of Barack Obama.  

Fox's legal expert Greta Van Susteren, who launched her TV career at CNN in the nineties proclaiming the prosecution's failure to prove up a murder case against O.J. Simpson, had put on her political hat and was talking to the network's Democratic Party resident expert.

That expert would be Susan Estrich, currently a University of Southern California law professor and formerly a chairperson of the dismal presidential campaign of Michael Dukakis in 1988.

It might be asked of Senator John McCain if he has any decency left.  Whatever he had he apparently checked at the door long ago in quest of the presidency as a Republican, where standards of decency are as antiquated as any mention that the Republicans are the "Party of Abraham Lincoln."

Remember, this is the John McCain who was happy to be called a "Maverick Republican" and proclaimed to be a supporter of campaign reform and fiscal responsibility.

We recall what happened when McCain sought the Republican presidential nomination against none other than then Texas Governor George W. Bush in 2000.  The South Carolina primary, a must win situation for Bush, was arguably the slimiest such contest in the annals of a party that, since the fifties, had seen the likes of smear artists Richard Nixon and Joe McCarthy and in 1988 featured the antics of George Bush the Elder.

Karl Rove, in the tradition of his idol Nixon and as direct successor to sleaze artist Lee Atwater, had his highly financed manure tossers attack McCain, his wife, and even his daughter.  The adopted daughter, who came from Bangladesh, was referred to as "McCain's black daughter" while his sanity was called into question and all stops were pulled out in pursuit of the victory that resulted.

Walter Mondale stated it correctly when he was running against the Reagan machine as well as a vigilant mainstream media in 1984, explaining, "They know that if they ever ran on the issues they would lose, so what they do is try and trick the majority of the American people to vote against themselves."

Richard Nixon came out of the Navy in 1946 and made a quick peace time adjustment by waging war of his own.  His target was Congressman Jerry Voorhees, who was a member of the House Un-American Activities Committee with impeccable anti-Soviet credentials as the Truman administration rolled up its sleeves as the Cold War began.

Nixon's smear stalwarts impugned Voorhees's patriotism with series' of anonymous calls to people residing in the Whittier area district stating, "We just wanted you to know that your congressman, Jerry Voorhees, is a Communist."

Four years later Nixon and his fat cat benefactors decided it was time for him to move up to the senate.  This time his target was Congresswoman Helen Gahagan Douglas and the same game was in active play.  Nixon uncorked his memorable barb of the campaign that "Congresswoman Douglas is pink right down to her underwear."