Playing dirty is nothing new in political campaigns, but with so much at stake we would like to see more people paying attention to substantive issues as the country gets closer to electing a new president.

A great deal of fuss was made this week about a photograph of Sen. Barack Obama wearing a traditional turban and robe during a 2006 visit to Kenya.

It was reported that staffers of Obama's presidential primary opponent, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, distributed the photo as a means of somehow embarrassing Obama. Clinton and her staff strongly denied it.

The fact that there's nothing wrong with trying on clothing while visiting a foreign country didn't seem to matter.

Obama's campaign manager seized the opportunity to accuse the Clinton campaign of “ ... shameful, offensive fear-mongering ...” while Clinton's campaign manager said that Obama campaigners should be ashamed of themselves if they thought the photo was somehow divisive.

Not long ago it was the issue of Clinton publicly shedding a tear. Had she truly been overtaken by emotion, or had she purposefully cried because she believed it would help her campaign?

Then, as now, the nonconsequential sideshow was all we seemed to hear about.

In the near future, one of these politicians is going to be a candidate for president. After that, the candidates for the two major parties, among others, will begin scrutinizing each other's every move, hoping that the public will be swayed one way or the other by what are, in reality, non-issues.

We wish that all campaigns involved in this election could stay away from the accusations long enough to explain to the voters what really matters: What do the candidates plan to do if elected president of the United States?