Irish Examiner view: Campaign mud starts to fly in the US

First primary in New Hampshire will take place next Tuesday

Barack Obama climbs upstairs to deliver his speech during the 'We Are One' concert, one of the events of Obama's inauguration celebrations, at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington on January 18, 2009. Picture: Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images

If you are the type of person who keeps a diary, then you might know what you were doing on this day 15 years ago.

It was a Tuesday. At home, the headlines were dominated by the nationalisation of the Anglo Irish Bank. Constitutional experts were reflecting on the 90th anniversary of the first meeting of Dáil Éireann. The GAA was in the middle of an acrimonious strike by Cork hurlers.