The promise of a clean campaign is only good when you think you are winning. When the going gets tough, the tough sometimes get dirty. Recall Vince Lombardi, "...winning is the only thing." Things have been a little tough for John McCain this week, so it's time to rough up the opposition. McCain, known to be intemperate when things don't go his way, offered today's cheap shot: "I had the courage and the judgment to say that I would rather lose a political campaign than lose a war," John McCain said during a Rochester, N.H., town meeting on July 22. "It seems to me that Senator Obama would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign."

Senator McCain hasn't noticed. Things seem to be going well in Iraq. (Time here.)