His campaign has, instead, spent the past week trying to stir up indignation about a Republican electioneering outfit that seems to have considered (but decided against) running an ad campaign about Mr Obama's ties to Jeremiah Wright, the pastor of a church the president used to attend and whose many racist, paranoid and unpatriotic utterances caused him great embarrassment during the 2008 campaign.
ECONOMIST: Lexington: Moral quandary | The