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Obama To McCain: Dignify Your Campaign

There was a thread of stern if not defensive outrage in Barack Obama's address at the Veterans of Foreign Wars on Tuesday. The Illinois Democrat did not raise his voice, nor did his facial expression reflect a sense of anger. But he was pointed in his criticism and direct in lambasting the type of campaign his Republican opponent, John McCain, is running.

"Yesterday, Senator McCain came before you," said Obama. "He is a man who has served this nation honorably, and he correctly stated that one of the chief criteria for the American people in this election is going to be who can exercise the best judgment as Commander in Chief. But instead of just offering policy answers, he turned to a typical laundry list of political attacks. He said that I have changed my position on Iraq when I have not. He said that I am for a path of "retreat and failure." And he declared, "Behind all of these claims and positions by Senator Obama lies the ambition to be president" -- suggesting, as he has so many times, that I put personal ambition before my country. That is John McCain's prerogative. He can run that kind of campaign, and -- frankly -- that's how political campaigns have been run in recent years. But I believe the American people are better than that. I believe that this defining moment demands something more of us."