My wife likes to say of certain seemingly contradictory assertions, “They are not mutually incompatible”.

The allegations against Joe Biden could very well be part of a timed rollout. Though if they are, the Sanders campaign was unusually subtle and strategic about it, engineering a break with Lucy Flores over a year ago, just to keep her in reserve to accuse Biden.

Not impossible. And really, not important either.

Opposition research can either be true or false. Russiagate is an example of the latter. The Biden allegations are likely an example of the former.

Political hit jobs can be an outright smear. But more often they’re based on the truth. The truth may be exaggerated, distorted and spun. But the best attacks depend on an underlying truth. An underlying truth that everybody already knows. (Compare the basic weirdness of the Russia conspiracy theories to the Bill Clinton sexual assault claims and consider, in a non-partisan way, which one makes more sense.)

Opposition research like that can transition into the rollout of accusations for best effect, but it’s working with underlying truths.