Way back some years ago — all right, in August of 2002 — Lileks predicted that
Once vulgar words are commonplace in the papers and the television, there�s no going back – and public life just gets cruder and cruder. I know it�s a losing battle. Fifty years down the road a presidential candidate will say �My opponent says I�m soft on the military, and to him and all his advisors, I can honestly say: f**k you.� He�ll be celebrated in some corners for connecting with the genuine people, with those not bound by musty conventions. The authentic people! The ones who really f**kin� live!
(Expletives deleted). As with most dire predictions about society going to Hell in a handbasket, this one was inaccurate only because he overestimated how long it would take us to land at the bottom of that slippery slope; we’re there now.
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Well, it�s certainly not the first time a politician used profanity. LBJ, in particular, was notoriously profane. And not the first time one has been caught on tape (see the Nixon tapes and George W. during the last campaign inadvertently cursing into a microphone to describe a certain reporter).
But you may be right that it�s the first time a major Presidential candidate has gone on record using profanity in a major interview. In any case, not a good precedent and a sure sign of Kerry�s growing desperation and frustration with his floundering campaign.