It all started with smearing of Barry Goldwater with the infamous atomic bomb ad. This is a truth that has obviously escaped her.
It (politics of personal destruction) started long before Goldwater.
For instance, the attacks launched by the Roosevelt Administration (including through the Leftist press - see some of Dr. Seuss’ political cartoons from Punch Magazine) at Charles Linbergh over his involvement (proven wrong by hindsight) with “America First” were rooted in a big grudge FDR and Harold Ickes had over Lindbergh’s opposition years earlier to their first term scheme to nationalize the nascent air transport industry.