“..a woman at a house party in Bow, N.H., asked her [Edwards] one recent morning how her husband’s campaign would respond to ‘the inevitable horrible mudslinging’ that is part of presidential politics… ‘It’s a question of being prepared and not having any hesitation,’ she said. ‘You go straight to the nose because then they walk away bleeding. And that’s the point.’”

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1661700,00.html