The dead have been used, the admired exploited, and the gay outed. The 2004 election is certainly not the dirtiest campaign in American history - no sexual sleaze or corruption charges, so far - but this week has seen its share of the distasteful.

Less than a day after the actor who personified Superman died, John Edwards was on the stump in Iowa: "If we do the work that we can do in this country, the work that we will do when John Kerry is president, people like Christopher Reeve are going to walk, get up out of that wheelchair and walk again."