John Adams vs. Barack Obama

I'm a huge fan of David McCullough, in fact 1776 is probably one of my favorite books of all time, but I have never had the chance to read John Adams, what many people consider to be his best work. I was able to do the next best thing though: I watched the movie (miniseries actually, last time I checked movies usually don't run 6 disks). I loved it, but what I liked most was that it gave me a new perspective on the current presidential race, and for that matter politics in general.
I believe that both John McCain and Barack Obama are capable politicians and leaders, and that either one of them, if elected, would be able to preform the duties of the presidency well. Take either one of them back to the 1770's-80's, however, and they would be torn apart (suppose that race would not have been an issue). Barack and McCain, capable and intelligent as they may be, are the products of an age where elections are won and lost by soundbites. Politics has gone wrong. It's difficult to find any original thought anymore, pretty much everything candidates say is scripted and run by test audiences before it even reaches their hands. I can barely stand to watch debates anymore, it's just like actors spewing out lines and trying to deliver a great line about change or putting lipstick on dogs. It's ridiculous. Everything that they say is like a guided missile, directed by polls and trying to get on the news, where it can blow up in the face of the 18 to 24 or middle America or the demographic of the day. our founding fathers were no strangers to character attacks or political maneuvering, but at least they stood on their own abilities to defend what they believed in. They gave real speeches about topics of real importance.
I know that the blame is not solely on the shoulders of today's politicians, the media contributes to the problem as much as anything, but regardless of who is at fault, politics today is as fake as Hollywood. So no matter how much I liked the movie John Adams, I'd rather have the book any day.