It did not take long for Cory Booker, Newark’s Democratic mayor, to “clarify” his criticisms of Barack Obama’s campaign. On Sunday morning Mr Booker described the blistering attack on Mitt Romney’s private equity record as “nauseating”. By the afternoon it was fair game. Such is the flurry of campaign news cycles. And we are still almost six months away from the election.

Yet Mr Booker’s initial comments offer a good indicator of what lies ahead in this year’s election. Of course, it was ever thus. But 2012 brings two additional reasons for supposing this race will be nastier than normal. First, it looks like it is going to be very close. Polls show the two candidates are neck and neck against a backdrop of widespread apathy.

The combination is telling: the less motivated the voter, the more cartoonish the politics. The best parallel is 2004 when George?W. Bush pipped John Kerry to the post after a brutal character assassination. It has become common to predict 2012 will be “Swift Boats on steroids”. Mr Obama has long been used to vicious whispering campaigns about his race, land of birth and religion. Mr Romney is getting used to similar.