PoliticsBarack Obama david cameronpolitical smears

9 Notoriously Nasty Political Smears From Kenyan Obama To The State Of The Camerons' Marriage

9 Notoriously Nasty Political Smears
Chris York
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US President Barack Obama speaks at a Walmart on May 9, 2014 in Mountain View, California. Obama praised Friday measures taken by his administration to develop solar energy in the United States, despite attacks and setbacks from his Republican opponents. AFP PHOTO/Brendan SMIALOWSKI (Photo credit should read BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI via Getty Images

The world of politics can be a murky and often nasty place, full of smears, slander and sinister skullduggery.

Take the current coalition - not the most comfortable bedfellows at the best of times but the relationship soured further over the weekend with allegations of back-stabbing and tale-telling.

What makes the latest accusations all the more vicious is they concern not only politicians but also their wives.

First up was Nick Clegg's wife, Miriam Gonzalez Durantez, who was drawn into a row over a charity she backs which was apparently fast-tracked £12m from the deputy prime minister.

Clegg of course denies the claims and even threatened a police investigation.

Then it was David Cameron's turn in the spotlight after the Lib Dems allegedly tried to plant a story in the press about the poor state of his marriage.

A 'Tory insider' told the Daily Mail: "Significant Lib Dems have been spreading a totally baseless story suggesting trouble in the Cameron marriage."

Oh dear.

Anyway, this would seem to be the perfect time to have a good old reminisce about some of the best political smears of recent years, from both sides of the Atlantic...

9 Nasty Political Smears
The man who hated Britain(01 of08)
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The Daily Mail wrote a pretty hefty hatchet piece claiming Ed Miliband's father actually hated Britain. They refused to apologise and stood by their character assassination of a dead man. (credit:PA)
Paedogate(02 of08)
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Deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman had a tough old time when it emerged an organisation she worked for in the 1970s had links to a group who championed rights for paedophiles. Oh dear... (credit:PA)
Nick Clegg is a Nazi. Sort of...(03 of08)
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The Daily Mail did a grand job of twisting some words from Nick Clegg to portray him as a goose-stepping Britain-hater when he said: "All nations have a cross to bear, and none more so than Germany with its memories of Nazism. But the British cross is more insidious still."A misplaced sense of superiority, sustained by delusions of grandeur and a tenacious obsession with the last war, is much harder to shake off. We need to be put back in our place.". Even readers of the paper were uncomfortable with the assertion. (credit:Daily Mail)
Plebgate(04 of08)
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Ah, Plebgate. The controversy that still rumbles on. Andrew Mitchell was accused of calling police officers "plebs" after they made him dismount his bicycle to enter Downing Street. Mitchell denies using the word but the furore still cost him his job. The saga has taken many twists and turns with with witnesses jailed for fabricating testimony in what Mitchell insists is a giant stitch-up. (credit:PA)
'Weekend Passes'(05 of08)
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During his first stint as governor of Massachusetts in the 70s, Michael Dukakis vetoed legislation that would have prevented furloughs for first-degree murderers. This resulted in the release of rapist William "Willie" Horton. During a subsequent presidential bid in 1988 a committee affiliated with George Bush senior's campaign broadcast an ad called 'Weekend Passes' that used a mugshot of Horton. The Bush campaign didn't endorse the ad and the sinister suggestion it held. (credit:AP)
Swiftboating(06 of08)
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So harsh - not to mention fundamentally untrue - was this attack on John Kerry that it even spawned the phrase 'swiftboating'. Part of Kerry's presidential campaign in 2004 was based on his heroics as a Swift Boat commander in Vietnam. An organisation, Swift Vets and POWs for Truth (SVPT), tried their very hardest to discredit his claims using a series of ads and even publishing a book, 'Unfit for Command'. SVPT was subsequently fined by the Federal Election Commission. (credit:Getty Images)
Obama is Kenyan(07 of08)
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Barack Obama is actually Kenyan and as such is unfit and ineligible to be the president of the US. Well, this is what the 'birthers' would have you believe... (credit:Getty Images)
The bogus Christmas card(08 of08)
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During the 2008 presidential race, a Christmas card purporting to be from the Romney family was delivered to homes of South Carolina Republicans. It contained phrases associated with Romney's Mormon faith designed to make the mostly Christian Republicans feel uncomfortable. One for instance, claimed God had multiple wives. (credit:AP)
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