The low-road strategy beat Michael Dukakis, Al Gore and John Kerry. But not Ronald Reagan or Bill Clinton. And maybe not Barack Obama. Here’s why.

Dukakis, Gore and Kerry reinforced – with their own performances – the portrait that Republican slime-masters drew of them.

Lee Atwater painted Dukakis as a wuss. And Dukakis wussed out when asked at a debate if he would support the death penalty for someone who murdered his wife.

Rove & Co. painted Gore as a phony robot. And Gore looked like a phony robot in the debates.

They painted Kerry as a flip-flopping elitist. Kerry went wind-surfing in spandex shorts.

But Reagan and Clinton refused to be pegged.

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