You can set your watch by them

As soon as Obama pulls even with Hillary in Iowa, the right wing smear machine fixes him in their sights.

Is Perry Bacon Serious?
Obama story has no place in the Washington Post
By Paul McLeary
Columbia Journalism Review

In The Washington Post this morning, reporter Perry Bacon Jr. wrote what may be the single worst campaign ‘08 piece to appear in any American newspaper so far this election cycle.

In the front-page piece, Bacon muses over how the chances of Barack Obama getting elected president might be affected by the fact that he’s not Muslim. Seriously. To build his case, Bacon stumbles artlessly through all manner of rumor, innuendo, and xenophobic smear—never bothering to refute any of it, even though there is plenty of well-documented evidence to knock down much of this stuff.

On the one hand, how pathetic and sad is that? On the other had, how does a campaign rebut these allegations without giving them staying power?

Here's hoping Obama's campaign folks are more imaginative than I am.