When did our candidates/campaigns become cults of personality? [View all]

[Beartracks]

I seem to recall that in the not-too-distant past, presidential campaigns and party tickets -- think logos and slogans -- were centered on last names, e.g. Gore vs. Bush, Clinton vs. Bush, Reagan/Bush (wow, too many Bushes), Obama/Biden, etc. Now it's all first names -- Hillary! Bernie! Jeb! -- like the candidates are pop stars or talk show hosts (Ellen, Rush, Rihanna, Cher...)

This isn't like a huge issue (I don't think), just something I noticed with not only campaign logos, but also forum discussions: people talk about candidates by their first names. I think quite often even professional journalists and "journalists" refer to them by their first names, too.

Or.... has it always been this way, but first-name-basis is just the new way of doing it?

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