Traditionally in sports, you don't exactly devote a whole lot of effort in the preseason, lest you risk injury and give away your game plan to other teams early. As I mentioned yesterday, the "Bush cheated!" rumors in 2004 came in October. The "Bush is a racist" card from 2000 that was played in ads that blamed the death of dragging victim James Byrd on then-governor of Texas Bush also came in October, as referenced by the date of this op-ed from the time by Brent Bozell.

Both cards have already been played by Obama this year against John McCain (though virtually nothing would top the smear by the teams playing in 2000), and the conventions haven't even started. Which seems to be either a rookie error, or they're sitting on the mother of all doomsday October surprises.

As far as the McCain cheated! rumor, it seems like a pretty silly one to have Andrea Mitchell float for Obama as (a) the Bush cheated! rumor didn't exactly gain much traction in 2004 and (b) it allows the McCain camp to remind the media of this:

Exit quotation from Team McCain's bruising letter to NBC about how deep in the tank they are for Obama: "John McCain actually requested that he and Barack Obama do the forum together on stage at the same time, making these kinds of after-the-fact complaints moot."