Lest you think the 2012 presidential campaign is vicious in a way that past races have never been, the Library of Congress enters the fray to prove that the fight has always been brutal. And it’s proving it in pictures. Presidential Campaign Posters: Two Hundred Years of Election Art collects the best election propaganda going back to the 1828 race between Democrat Andrew Jackson and incumbent John Quincy Adams of the National Republican party, which many historians consider the beginning of modern American politics, in part for its savagery. “Some Account of some of the Bloody Deeds of GENERAL JACKSON,” reads one of the first campaign posters in the book, with Adams portraying Jackson as a common murderer. Campaign posters tell you the story of American politics through the years, and how a dignified portrait of the candidate, a catchy slogan, bold graphics, and the selling of the American dream can get you elected. From Andrew Jackson as king, Jimmy Carter as Jesus, Gerald Ford as Fonzie, to Barack Obama as the embodiment of “Hope,” here is the narrative of presidential politics as told through dazzling images.