As a kid, I used to pore over the great series of American Heritage Books of Presidents and Famous Americans, which, like the magazine from which the material was culled, were crammed full of great images and memorabilia. I remember being weirded out by reproductions of images of people being tarred and feathered, out of focus early photographs of Andrew Jackson (or was it John Quincy Adams), and trying to read political cartoons with word balloons windier than a typical installment of Cathy. There was a particularly great shot of Calvin Coolidge wearing—suffering would be a more apt description— an Indian war bonnet.

I don't know if that series is still around and, if it is, whether it's being updated to inlcude the two incredibly lousy presidents we've had so far in the 21st century. But when the history of the 2012 campaign gets written, I hope there's space in it to remember that Barack Obama—so fashion forward in all things and as hip with the Internet as he is with drone technology—broke new ground by taking to Twitter to pitch a $5 bumper sticker.

We haven't had a federal budget in years, but there's always time for Twitter fundraising pitches.

Related (I think): According to a Hill poll of likely voters, 68 percent of Americans think that Obama has "significantly changed America." Fifty-six percent think he's changed it for the worse versus 35 percent who think he's made it better.