Some observations with about 30 days to go ...

-- John McCain seems to have gotten the message and is toning the hateful rhetoric down, but too many Americans, I think, are disgusted by all this and will vote for Obama no matter what.

-- We know someone who was doing some phone bank work for Obama yesterday. One lady, age 92, said she wouldn't be voting because she was blind. They asked who she would vote for if she could. Her answer: "the white guy." No matter how much the polls show Obama in the lead, we don't know how this racial element will play out. This is new ground we're treading. The next couple of weeks will be quite interesting. If Obama is smart -- and he is -- he won't take anything for granted.

-- And we wish people would stop with all the nonsense about being crticial of the Clintons not getting more involved with the campaign until now. Understand this: Bill and Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail now has a bigger impact than it would have if they'd had been there all along. The smart folks at the Obama campaign know that. And don't think this wasn't planned.