In the midst of all that, the Clinton campaign had released its 3:00 AM ad asking the rhetorical question who you wanted in the White House when the phone rang at three in the morning: Hillary R. (!) Clinton or Barack H. (!) Obama.

Whether the ad was fair or not, it did exactly what the Clinton campaign wanted it to do: Raise the issue of foreign policy competence in the Terrorist Era.

Continuing on the theory that when things begin to go wrong they go very wrong, on the day the Obama campaign scored its first big positive news in a month with the endorsement of New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, yet another senior Obama advisor went off the reservation by comparing Bill J. (!) Clinton to Joe McCarthy.

According to the Associated Press, B. J. (!) Clinton had said, musing about a Hillary v. John McCain general election match-up:

"I think it would be a great thing if we had an election year where you had two people who loved this country and were devoted to the interest of this country. And people could actually ask themselves who is right on these issues, instead of all this other stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics."

Which according to a co-chairman of Obama's campaign, Retired Gen. Merrill "Tony" McPeak, amounted to McCarthyism telling reporters:

"I grew up, I was going to college when Joe McCarthy was accusing good Americans of being traitors, so I've had enough of it."

Both Clinton campaign supporters and Obama campaign supporters declared Gen. McPeak to be over the top (pun absolutely intended).

All of which proves the adage: When a campaign goes bad, it goes really bad.