What would Barry Goldwater have said about the U.S. presidential campaign for 2012?

I had trouble getting excited about the recent presidential campaign between President Barak Obama and Mitt Romney.  

I spent much of my life getting excited about political campaigns, especially those for the presidency.  They gave my life a sense or purpose and identity.  Not anymore.  At times, the recent campaign seemed like a replay of a civil war.  

People on both sides seemed to get really nasty.  It was more than the usual political trash-talking.  There seemed to be a lack of respect for anybody who hold a different view.

One politician that I really admired was Barry Goldwater who ran for president in 1964.  He was a former U.S. Senator who had a reputation for being a player in the U.S. Congress even though he was a conservative.  Other side respected him, as he did them.

He knew the art of how to make government work.

I wonder what he would have said about the recently completed campaign and how he would have reacted to the polarization that exists.

Check my t-shirt, a gift from my son-in-law. Pic on the shirt is Barry Goldwater.