The Gentle Discourse of American Elections

If you think the U.S. presidential election is getting a bit ugly, you're right. But David Kenner of Foreign Policy reminds us that it could be a lot worse. As a point of comparison, take Russia’s presidential election earlier this year.

Vladimir Putin plopped Dmitry Medvedev (above) into the president’s chair, but Liberal Democratic Party candidate Vladimir Zhirinovsky went down shooting. He used a high-powered rifle to shoot a cardboard cutout of Medvedev at a campaign rally.

How crazed was Zhirinovsky? At a televised debate, he shouted the following at candidate Andrei Bogdanov’s campaign manager:

“He’s a scoundrel! Look at his face! The guy’s sick! A typical schizoid! Any psychiatrist will tell you the guy’s a wacko.”

Zhirinovsky then pushed the campaign manager off the stage and told his bodyguard to take the man outside and shoot him.

This sort of puts complaints of un-retouched photos in a new light, wot?