Mind you. No-one else has been given the same opportunity to answer campaign smears. Five days to write a speech and free airtime is a lot to give any candidate who is supposed to react quickly under pressure.

And just how is anyone stopping the other candidates from doing this? He had made statements about the issue earlier, he just chose to make a comprehensive speech about it rather than relying on sound bytes alone. Maybe if others tried this they would find that their speech would be aired as well. And the fact that he took a few days to craft the speech is not a problem in my book. Given the way these things are sliced and diced it makes much more sense than making a fairly lengthy speech about a sensitive issue off-the-cuff.