The dog days of summer are a good time to play the game of What-If, and the Annenberg Public Policy Center  has a fun one at FlackCheck.org.

What if the kind of campaigns we run today were available in the presidential race of 1864?

For those a little hazy on their high school history, that's the year Abraham Lincoln ran for re-election. While we tend to think of Lincoln as the president so great we put his face on the penny, the $5 bill and Mount Rushmore, there were some doubts in the months leading up to that election whether Lincoln would survive a challenge from George McClellan, the one-time commander of the Union Army.

With Could Lincoln be Re-Elected Today? the web site offers some 21st Century style attacks on the candidates, from a SuperPac calling itself Steam Boat Veterans for Truth against McClellan to various attacks on Lincoln as a flip-flopper, a redistributor of wealtlh through the Homestead Act and a "melancholiac."

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