In the midst of a presidential cycle with Donald Trump and democracy itself on the ballot, the 2012 election between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney seems, in hindsight, as benign as a P.G. Wodehouse novel.
Sure, there were misadventures—Obama’s flailing first debate, Romney’s claim that 47 percent of voters are on the government dole. But these episodes were about as serious as Jeeves rescuing Bertie Wooster from an ill-considered romantic attachment. The Obama-versus-Romney contest featured two good men (see Romney’s impeachment vote) who strongly disagreed on taxes and social issues—pretty much how things should be in a robust democracy.
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