Harsh Politics

Last night was the premiere of Reelz Channel's "The Kennedy's." It is a one-week long mini-series. I started watching it for two reasons, I love, love, love Greg Kinnear, and I am always interested in history docudramas. The show is really good so far, although all I've seen is the two-hour premiere, but I had a sort of revelation at one point, where John (Jack) was running for a local office, and he slipped up in his speech, kind of a funny little thing where he said "Americans want less jobs... um, Americans want more jobs." all of a sudden I began to wonder where our country's political arena would be if the modern technology of today was available back then. When a politician said something stupid back then, far, far fewer people heard about it, and it took weeks or longer even then, and was often diluted by media management. Now, with social networks, blogs, streaming video, etc etc, no one can get away with any slip up. Would JFK have been branded a buffoon of the likes of Bush, or Palin? Is our current "living live" atmosphere too harsh for politics, or any other social area?