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As a newcomer it can be difficult to judge how bad it's got. It is easy to be swept away by the drama of the moment and I would rather err on the side of caution than hysteria. However, this morning writes of ""chaos", "a political storm", "disarray" and "disorder".

Every day I am told the frustration with Washington is greater than ever before. Politics is more vicious, more party political, that America is more divided than ever before. I was taking with a veteran American cameraman who predicted that the 2012 election would be the nastiest yet. Others who've been in this town along time agree that there is a new peak in partisanship.

I am still not quite sure. Viewed from the other side of the pond politics in the era of George W and Clinton, the war and the culture wars, looked pretty tough. I wasn't much interested in politics as a teenager but even could feel the waves of hatred towards Nixon washing across the Atlantic. Is it worse now than the era portrayed in Rick Perlstein's brilliant Nixonland, a portrait of a country rocked by riot and near revolution?

Was Washington less filled with hate during those long decades when up on the Hill white men shared a comfy bipartisan drink while Americans couldn't share the same water fountain? I would be interested to read what you think.

Still, no one doubts Obama is in a serious position and the gloves are off. According to the Republicans have prepared a Powerpoint presentation featuring rude cartoons of Obama and the message "save the country from trending toward socialism!"

It is clearly too late to stop it trending toward using nouns as verbs. Although this is portrayed as crude, it is in a sense a pussy-footing message that pulls its punches. Why "trending@" not "becoming"? Why a wordy mouthful instead of "save our country
from socialists"?

Another curiosity is that Obama is portrayed as the Joker, Nancy Pelosi as Cruella Deville but Harry Reid as Scooby Doo. It's true Scooby is the least loveable and most irritating cartoon character ever, but it is not exactly below the belt vicious to compare the senator to a cowardly but good-hearted dog. (.)

Perhaps we will be saved from the election getting really dirty by the ad men's ineptitude.

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