http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1153389,00.htmlThe Republicans' dirty tricks department is in full swing. False rumours about a sex scandal have already hurt Democrat frontrunner John Kerry who suffered a drop in the polls after the right-wing gossip website The Drudge Report published the story. A faked photograph of Kerry sharing a stage with Jane Fonda during anti-Vietnam war demonstrations has also mysteriously emerged.
Democrats have not taken it lying down. It was Democrat officials who led the charge to criticise Bush's record of service in the national guard. Some Democrat supporters, including the singer Moby, have openly approved of the planting of rumours on the internet about Bush's youth, including a story about a woman forced to have an abortion - there is no proof, but it has already gained wide currency on the internet. To pour oil on the fire, pornographer Larry Flynt has said he will publish a book on the subject later this summer.
Flynt's book will be one among many. No fewer than 25 anti-Bush books will be published in the next six months, including titles like Fraud: The Strategy Behind the Bush Lies and The Book on Bush: How George W Misleads America.
The vitriolic nature of the attacks on both sides springs from so much being at stake. Voters face a choice between one of the most radical Republican administrations and a newly charged Democratic Party determined to reverse America's course.