Willie Horton Watch

So far, this presidential campaign has been free of dirty tricks. But in trying to get voters to stick to their side, the candidates occasionally engage in the tacky.

In a speech, John McCain pleads for a campaign free of personal attacks; his staff hands out flyers titled McCain’s Mature Vision for America’s Future vs. Bush’s Political Plan for the 2000 Election. He later apologizes for the “cheap shot.”

Gary Bauer offers select donors a chance to peek at the McCaugheys’ septuplets for $250.

The Gore campaign dispatches 6-ft. “Corn Man” to protest Bill Bradley’s agriculture policy, a human chicken to highlight Bradley’s fear of debates and jumping-jacking senior citizens known as Gray Panthers to mock his claim that exercise would lower Medicare costs.

The Bradley campaign distributes flyers to senior citizens describing the symptoms of “Goreitis,” or “uncontrollable lying,” about Bradley’s health-care plan. Bradley aides later apologize.

Forbes followers send 42,000 e-mail subscribers a column that chastises Bush as a “reformed playboy.”

After promising not to go negative, the Bush campaign recruits a college volunteer to appear in an attack ad aimed at McCain. She balks and defects to the McCain side.