Bridget Johnson has a funny and insightful article over at OpinionJournal. In it, she lays out the case for dirty campaigning:

But if a vice president was capable of shooting Alexander Hamilton, if a president was predisposed to Oval Office trysts, shouldn’t we know that beforehand? Shouldn’t we see the deepest, darkest recesses of a candidate’s mind, rather than focusing on a phony smile and oversized scissors poised just so at a ribbon cutting?

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And why is this important? Because I don’t want a leader who will invite Osama bin Laden to sit down for group therapy and talk about why he wants to destroy the United States; I want a leader who will take the fight to al Qaeda and its cronies regardless of what France thinks. I want a candidate who is less concerned about whether the world wants to come out and play than about dirty bombs dropping on our doorstep. Tough times take a tough hombre who can roll with the punches and fight back when necessary, and isn’t afraid of violating some unwritten code by informing us of his opponent’s flaws.