The Wall Street Journal's "Washington Wire" blog reports that the presidential campaign has turned negative. Finally! Here's the Journal:
With 45 days to go before the Iowa Caucuses, presidential campaigning has turned increasingly negative, with Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama trading jabs over the weekend following a report in a Robert Novak column titled 'Clinton Camp Hints She Won't Tell Scandalous Info on Obama.' Vowing not to be 'swift-boated,' the Obama camp responded fast and angrily, daring the Clinton camp to air whatever information they claimed to have. Yet Clinton's campaign denied they planted the information and said with a verbal pat on the head that Obama fell for a trap. 'The Clinton campaign has admitted that they do not possess the 'scandalous information' in question and we take them at their word. But what we don't accept is their assertion that this is somehow falling for Republican tricks. This is exactly the kind of smear politics, Democrats need to fight back on, regardless of the source or the party,' said Obama campaign manager David Plouffe.
Here's a link to the Novak column in question. As the Journal notes, so far none of the negative campaigning has wound up on paid televsion. When it does, you can take it as a sign that the perpetual campaign is over and the real campaign has begun.