Somewhere along the line, and I hope it wasn't in a Hunter S Thompson story, I heard that Lyndon Johnson said "Never get caught sleeping with a live pig or a dead woman."

I think its actually Edwin Edwards (fmr Gov of Louisiana) who said "The only way I can lose this election is if I'm caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy."

Your version sounds like an apocryphal variation.

Do you have a source for that?

From "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72", p. 247:

The race was close and Johnson was getting worried. Finally he told his campaign manager to start a massive rumor campaign about his opponent's life-long habit of enjoying carnal knowledge of his own barnyard sows. “Christ, we can't get away with calling him a pig-fucker,” the campaign manager protested. “Nobody's going to believe a thing like that.” “I know,” Johnson replied. “But let's make the sonofabitch deny it.”

It's often said that politicians have "no morals" but this - ig verified - really demonstrates a complete lack of decency that is quite galling to me. Subverting democracy with smutty name-calling, seriously; and these are supposed leaders of the people.

Such a small thing would so sully the office of the POTUS so as to genuinely discredit the USA for me.

What's worse is I fear that such a fiend would have no shame for doing something like this. If I were supreme ruler of Earth politicians doing such things would be censured and forced to clean Mumbai sewers for the rest of their days.

Fully agreed. As a Canadian, I was disgraced by the attack ads put forth by our two most recent contending parties that I did not vote.

How can I vote for either of them, when they are both miscreants?

Luckily there are more than just 2 parties to vote for... true, the PC and Liberals were the top dogs but the oft-overlooked NDP certainly bumped things up last time and the Green - well, they were given a seat off in the backwaters of BC... oh, and a few other regional/sort-of-national parties as well - there are alternatives if you're willing to test them out.

Well yes and no. Imho, a vote for anything other than the two who can actually win is as good as no vote at all.

Sometimes I think they are put there by the main parties to steal votes from their opposition on issues they cannot possibly accommodate.

that's the exact intention of attack ads, they disenfranchise voters, and this is usually very good for incumbents.

I first heard it from Hunter S. Thompson in "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72", so I would take it with a grain of salt... (and it was a pig not a donkey.)

That's awesome. I really hope that is a true story.