In one way the question answers itself. Playing dirty wins elections for the Republicans, as in 2000 and 2004, both of which they actually lost. I don’t quite understand how the American press let them get away with it (I am not a US citizen).

The Republicans kust be dreading an Obama victory, not least because of what he might find on file from the Bush years. I don’t buy all the 9/11 conspiracy theories but I also know we haven’t been told everything, and that some of what we have been told can’t be right (open Korans found in the alleged cars of the bombers? oh come now). I suspect that if Obama - please God! - does win, against the nastiness of the rightwing media and a lot of residual racism in US culture, there will be a lot of frantic shredding and hard-drive reformatting in high places before he takes office